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The True 
Andrew Jackson 



By 
Cyrus Townsend Brady, LL.D, 

Author of "American Fights and Fighters" Series, 

"Commodore Paul Jones," "Stephen Decatur," 

"When Blades are Out and Love's Afield," 

" Woven with the Ship," etc. 



With Twenty-Three Illustrations 



Philadelphia and London 

J. B. Lippincott Company 
1906 



^l 




ANDREW JACKSON 

From the original portrait by Thomas Sully in possession of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania 



Preface 

A RE-STATEMENT of the scopc of this Series seems a 
necessary preliminary to each successive volume. No 
formal biography is contemplated. There has been no 
attempt to tell in chronological order the life-story of 
any of the persons discussed, although the temptation in 
my case — and I presume the same is true of the other 
authors in the Series — has been strong to do just that 
thing. The volumes of the Series, therefore, are the 
result of the exercise of at least one quality which goes 
to make a successful book — self-restraint. 

To repeat what has already been said elsewhere, here 
is an attempt to make a picture in words of a man ; 
to exhibit a personality; to show that personality in 
touch with its human environment ; to declare what 
manner of man was he whose name is on the title-page. 
Not to chronicle events, therefore, but to describe a 
being ; not to write a history of the time, but to give an 
impression of a period associated with its dominant per- 
sonal force, has been my task. To my mind the most 
useful of the smaller and earlier biographies of Andrew 
Jackson are those by John Henry Eaton and "An Amer- 
ican Officer." That is not saying much, however, and 
both biographies are very incomplete, as are Kendall's 
famous series of papers upon the same subject. In 1859 
appeared a comprehensive and exhaustive biography of 
Jackson by Mr. James Parton, who was by birth an Eng- 
lishman, but who strove earnestly, and with much suc- 
cess, to be fair, impartial, and judicious in discussion of 
the great mass of material which he so industriously 
accumulated and so thoroughly digested. 

Parton's book, in the words of Charles Francis 

vii 



PREFACE 

Adams, is " one of the most picturesque and vivid biog- 
raphies in the language," aUhough the date of its pub- 
lication was perhaps too near Jackson's period for 
any one living in America to write of him from that 
point of detachment necessary to an impartial and 
adequate biography. In many instances, too, Parton 
failed to comprehend the spirit of the age and there- 
fore the spirit of the man; for as much as times 
are products of men, so men are products of times. 
Nevertheless, Parton's biography remains, and always 
will remain, the great source of information about An- 
drew Jackson. No one can read it without respect and 
admiration for Parton as well as for Jackson. Since 
its first publication it has been re-issued in greatly ab- 
breviated form in " The Great Commanders Series." 
The original work was in three volumes of over two 
thousand pages ; the abridgment is in one of three hun- 
dred. It is greatly to be regretted that this book is 
out of print and only to be had occasionally in second- 
hand book stalls, for as it first appeared it was more 
than a life of Jackson; it was in large measure an 
invaluable history of the times. All quotations hereafter 
are from the original edition. 

Since Parton's biography four others have appeared. 
One published in 1882 in the " American Statesmen 
Series" is by Professor William Graham Sumner, 
Ninety pages of this book are devoted to the first fifty- 
four years of Jackson's life, three hundred and seventy 
to his political career. The usual biography reverses 
these proportions. Professor Sumner's book is a val- 
uable study from a certain point of view — antagonistic, 
not to say bitterly hostile! — of Jackson's career as a 
President and statesman, and my candid opinion of it is 
that it is prejudiced and unfair to a marked degree — 
still, it is interesting. 

My friend, the much lamented Colonel Augustus C. 
viii 



PREFACE 

Buell, prepared a history of Andrew Jackson in two 
handsome octavo volumes of eight hundred pages, which 
was pubHshed last year shortly after his death. This 
book is altogether admirable. It supplements and also 
corrects Parton's in a very desirable way. Colonel 
Buell in his vocation as a newspaper correspondent was 
brought in contact in his earlier years with a number 
of people of prominence who had known Jackson. He 
interviewed them whenever and wherever he could and 
carefully preserved their conversations. One might 
think that Parton had exhausted the field, but Buell dis- 
covered much that Parton did not know or did not avail 
himself of. He has produced a delightful book. 

Colonel A. S. Colyar, of Nashville, is the author of 
the latest life of Jackson. He, too, succeeded in un- 
earthing much new material, and although he is a special 
pleader in behalf of Jackson and fails to discuss certain 
aspects of his life, or refer to certain incidents, his 
book is interesting and contains much that is of value, 
especially in the line of further reminiscences. 

In addition to these books the small biography by Pro- 
fessor William Garrott Brown, published in 1900, will 
be found to contain a clear and impartial resume of 
Jackson's career in a brief compass. 

These five biographies are necessary to an under- 
standing' of Jackson. I have pored over them long 
and earnestly. I have quoted from them frequently and 
beg to acknowledge here my obligation to them. In 
addition to these biographies, Mr. Charles H. Peck's 
admirable " Jacksonian Epoch " and Professor Ralph C. 
H. Catterall's " Second Bank of the United States" — a 
lucid, exhaustive, and brilliantly able book — are indis- 
pensable. I shall not attempt to enumerate the great 
number of auxiliary authorities, as Benton's " Thirty 
Years' View," " The American Statesmen Series," 
Schouler's " History of the United States," MacMaster's 

ix 



PREFACE 

" American People," and other valuable general his- 
tories of the period; the biographies of contempo- 
raries, as Clay, Webster, Calhoun ; the personal recol- 
lections, like Quincy's and Sergeant's ; the diaries, as 
those of Adams, Tyler, etc. ; the numerous magazine 
and other ephemeral articles in newspapers and journals, 
which furnish a great mass of material unnecessary to 
catalogue in a work of this character. 

I have prefixed to the volume an extended chronology 
of Jackson's life, compiled from data which I have 
secured from many sources and with much labor. I 
have come upon no such chronology — none of any sort, 
in fact — in my reading. The reader, and I hope also 
the student, will find it of value in assisting him to 
comprehend what follows. 

May I be forgiven a personal word in closing? Al- 
though I am now, and for many years have been, a 
Democrat, I was born and reared under strong Repub- 
lican influences. I began the study of Jackson with no 
great predisposition to admire him. He was not one of 
my early heroes — not politically or personally, that is. 
I have carefully examined his career and character from 
the point of view of friend and enemy. As will be seen 
from my chapter on Jackson's place in our history, I 
have become persuaded that he is one of the three great 
Presidents in our history ; and that, although he stands 
below both of them, as a personality he is quite worthy 
of being mentioned in the same breath with George 
Washington and Abraham Lincoln. 

Cyrus Townsend Brady. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., February i, 1906. 



Note 

In addition to those especially mentioned elsewhere 
the author desires gratefully to acknowledge much valu- 
able assistance in the difficult work of collecting the 
illustrations for this book from the following: the Rev. 
A. H. Hord, of Philadelphia; Mr. D. McN. Stauffer, 
of New York City; and Colonel A. C. Colyar, Mr. 
Robert T. Quarles, secretary of the Department of 
Archives and History, and Mrs, Mary C. Dorris, regent 
of the Ladies' Hermitage Association, of Nashville, 
Tenn. 

C. T. B. 



Contents 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — Family and Early Years 25 

II. — Lawyer 40 

III. — Planter, Storekeeper, and Sportsman 53 

IV. — Soldier 64 

V. — Soldier (Continued) 85 

VI. — Soldier (Continued) m 

VII.— Personal Appearance, Manners, "Jacksonian 

Vulgarity " i33 

VIII.— Relations With His Mother and Wife 156 

IX.— The Affair of Mrs. Eaton i79 

X. — Relations With Children 200 

XI. — Pugnacity — Patriotism 207 

XII.— Duels and Quarrels 220 

XIII. — Speeches and Addresses 250 

XIV. — Politician and President 279 

XV. — Nullification 320 

XVI.— War on the Bank 34" 

XVII.— Religion— Last Days 366 

XVIII.— Jackson's Place in Our History 390 

APPENDIX. 

A.— On the Birthplace of Andrew Jackson 407 

B.— South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification . . 439 

C— The Nullification Proclamation by Andrew 

Jackson, President of the United States, 

December id, 1832 443 

D.— General Jackson's Farewell Address to the 

People of the United States, on Retiring 

FROM the Presidency, March 4, 1837 468 

E._The Last Will and Testament of Andrew 

Jackson 492 

xiii 



List of Illustrations with Notes 



PAGE 

Andrew Jackson Frontispiece 

From the original portrait by Thomas Sully in possession of the His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania. 

The Large Log-Cabin, Part of the Original Hermitage . 54 
Built in 1804. 

Andrew Jackson 64 

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl in the State Capitol, 
Nashville, Tenn. 

Andrew Jackson i44 

From a miniature copied in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1858, from an 
original miniature painted in 1S32 and presented by General Jackson 
to his wife's namesake, Henrietta Rachel Jackson Armstrong, 
daughter of General Robert Armstrong. The copy was made for 
Mary A. Armstrong, another daughter of General Armstrong, from 
whom it came into possession of Rev. A. H. Hord, great-grandson 
of General Armstrong. General Jackson bequeathed his sword to 
General Armstrong. The whereabouts of the original miniature is 
unknown. 

Mrs. Jackson i74 

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl, painted at The Hermit- 
age in 1825. 

The Hermitage Garden 176 

Facsimile of Letter from Major-General Andrew Jackson, 
U.S.A., to Brigadier-General James Winchester, U.S.A., 
January i, 1807, in which He is ordered to be in Readi- 
ness TO Pursue and Arrest Aaron Burr should it be- 
come necessary 216 

In the possession of Mr. D. McN. Stauffer, Yonkers, New York. 

Andrew Jackson 220 

From the portrait by J. Vanderlyn in City Hall, New York City, 

painted in 1823. 

XV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WITH NOTES 

PAGE 

Thomas H. Benton ^t. about 35 232 

From a painting by Wilson Peale in the Missouri Historical Society. 
From " The Life of Thomas Hart Benton," by William M. Meigs. 

Henry Clay in Middle Life 244 

From the painting by Dubourjal. 

Front View of Andrew Jackson's Home, The Hermitage . 276 

John Quincy Adams 294 

From a photograph. 

Andrew Jackson 300 

From the engraving made in 1852 by Thomas B. Welch of the por- 
trait by Thomas Sully, then in the possession of Francis Preston 
Blair. 

The Jackson Medals 316 

Medal awarded by Congress in commemoration of Battle of New 
Orleans. Medal issued in commemoration of Jackson's Presidency. 

John C. Calhoun 320 

From a photograph. 

Daniel Webster 334 

From a photograph. 

Driveway to The Hermitage, lined with Cypresses . . . 374 
The Main Hall at The Hermitage 376 

The unique wall-paper, picturing the story of Telemachus on the 
Island of Calypso, was imported from Paris by Jackson. 

Room and Bed in which Jackson died 380 

Furnished as at that time. 

Last Portrait of Jackson painted a Short Time previous 
TO HIS Death 388 

From the original by Colonel R. E. W. Earl, in the possession of 
Colonel Andrew Jackson, Nashville, Tenn. 
xvi 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WITH NOTES 



Statue of Andrew Jackson by Clark Mills in Lafayette 

Square, Washington, D. C 390 

Erected in 1853 and unveiled on the thirty-eighth anniversary of the 
Battle of New Orleans. This statue was cast at Bladensburg, near 
Washington, by Mills himself, from cannon captured in Jackson's 
campaigns. He set up a furnace and made the first large bronze 
statue in America. In this statue the weight of the various parts is 
so distributed that the horse stands poised without additional sup- 
port and without the aid of rivet fastenings to the pedestal. The 
cost of the statue was fifty thousand dollars, part of which was 
donated by the Jackson Monument Association. 

Fac-simile of Letter from President Andrew Jackson to 
Joel R. Poinsett, December 2, 1832 408 

(Now in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.) 
This letter was written a few days before the issue of the Nullifica- 
tion Proclamation, and authorizes the use of force to preserve the 
Union. It is one of Jackson's most characteristic letters. 

Bust of Andrew Jackson by Hiram Powers in the Metro- 
politan Museum of Art, New York 416 



Chronology of 
The Life of Andrew Jackson 



1767. Born in South Carolina — March 15. 

1777. Visits Charleston with his Uncle Crawford to handle a 
drove of cattle — Summer. 

1780. Present at Battle of Hanging Rock — August 6. 

1781. Present at skirmish at Waxhaws Church — April 9. 
Is captured and sent to Camden — April 10. 
Witnesses Battle of Hobkirk's Hill from prison stockade 

— April 25. 

Exchanged* — May 10 (?). 

Death of Mrs. Jackson at Charleston f — November (?). 
1782-3. Visits Charleston to seek his mother's grave — Winter. 
1783-4. Teaches school at Waxhaws — Winter. 
1784. Begins study of law — fall. 

1787. Admitted to Bar of South Carolina— May. 

Begins practice of law at McLeanville, Guilford County, 

North Carolina — July (?). 
Appointed constable and special deputy sheriflf — fall. 

1788. Appointed "public solicitor" (prosecuting, circuit, or dis- 

trict attorney) for the Western District of North Caro- 
lina (Tennessee) by Judge McNairy — Spring. 



* According to the most trustworthy accounts Jackson was captured the day 
after a skirmish at Waxhaws Church. The only skirmish there, which is un- 
doubtedly the one referred to, was on April 9, 17S1. His mother negotiated his 
release with Lord Rawdon at Camden, South Carolina. Lord Rawdon evacu- 
ated Camden on May 10, 1781. At the very longest this would only make the 
period of Jackson's captivity one month — quite long enough, of course. In 
after life Jackson stated that he was in prison about two months. He must 
have been mistaken, as is evident. 

t I am able to approximate the date of the death of Mrs. Jackson by the fol- 
lowing data. When she reached Charleston she found Lord Rawdon gone and 
(according to Buell) a Colonel Leslie in command. General Leslie arrived at 
Charleston on November 7, relieving General Stuart, according to McCrady. 
Mrs. Jackson had an interview with Leslie, visited the prisoners by his permis- 
sion, and after a brief stay started for home, dying at the outset of her journey. 
As she had left Waxhaws early in the fall, I conclude that she died about the 
middle of November. 

xix 



CHRONOLOGY 

Duel with Col. Waightsill Avery— August 12. 
Arrives at Nashville — November 2. 

1791. Marries (Mrs.) Rachel Donelson Robards at Natchez, 

Mississippi — November. 
Starts plantation near Nashville. 

1792. Leads party against Indians who had attacked Robertson's 

Station — May 24. Major of militia (?). 
1794. Re-marries Mrs. Robards — January. 

1796. Member of Constitutional Convention at Knoxville, where 

he named the new State of Tennessee — January 11. 
Is elected to National House of Representatives. 
Arrives at Philadelphia and takes his seat in Congress — 

December 8. 
Votes against farewell address of Congress to George 

Washington — December 13. 
Makes first speech in Congress — December 29. 

1797. Takes his seat as senator from Tennessee by appointment 

of Governor Sevier, vice William Blount, resigned — 
November 22. 

1798. Leaves Philadelphia for Nashville and on arrival resigns 

from Senate — June. 

Goes into mercantile business with John Hutchings at his 
plantation, " Hunter's Hill," thirteen miles from Nash- 
ville. 

Elected Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Ten- 
nessee — Fall. 

1799. Takes his seat on the Bench — January 8. 
First afifray with Sevier. 

1801. Elected major-general of militia of Tennessee. 

1803. Second afifray with Sevier. 

1804. Resigns from Bench — July 24. 

Establishes himself in a new log house at " The Her- 
mitage," a plantation ten miles from Nashville, where 
he engages in stock breeding, etc. 
Associates with John Coffee in the business firm of Jack- 
son, Coffee & Hutchings, general storekeepers, dealers 
in stock and produce, boat builders, etc. 
1805-6. Entertains Aaron Burr. 
■""-^--1806. Duel with Charles Dickinson — May 30. 

1807. Is summoned to Richmond, Virginia, as a witness in the 
trial of Aaron Burr. Makes a speech at Capitol Square 
denouncing Jefferson and defending Burr. 
1807-12. Occupied as a militia commander, planter, sportsman, 
etc. 

XX 



CHRONOLOGY 

1812. Quarrelled with Silas Dinsmore — September. 

War of 1812. Natchez Campaign. Oflfers services of 
Tennessee Volunteers through Governor Blount — June 

25- 

Services accepted by Secretary of War — July 11. 
Summons field officers to meet at Nashville on Novem- 
ber 14. 
Mustei's division at Nashville — December 10. 

1813. Starts for New Orleans with division by boat — January 7. 
Arrives and camps at Natchez — February 15. 

Breaks camp and starts march homeward instead of dis- 
banding as ordered by Secretary of War — March 25. 

Dismisses Tennessee command at Nashville — May 22. 

His vouchers for expenses ordered paid by War Depart- 
ment at urgent request of Thomas H. Benton, then in 
Washington — June 14. 

Severely wounded in affray with the Bentons — Septem- 
ber 14. 

Creek War. Calls out his division from sick-bed — Sep- 
tember 25. 

Orders Coffee to Huntsville — September 26. 

Division assembles at Fayetsville — October 4. 

Takes personal command — October 7. 

Marches to Huntsville, thirty-two miles, in one day — 
October 12. 

Marches south into wilderness — October 19. 

Arrives at Thompson's Creek, twenty-two miles, and 
builds Fort Deposit — October 22. 

Marches further south — October 25. 

Arrives on the banks of the Coosa. Builds Fort Strother 
— November 2. 

Battle of TalluscJiatclics — November 3. Tennesseeans 
under Coffee lose five killed and forty-two wounded. 
Creek loss two hundred killed and eighty-four captured. 

Marches for Fort Strother — November 8. 

Battle of Talladega — November 9. Tennesseeans under 
Jackson lose fifteen killed and eighty-six wounded ; 
Creeks lose one hundred and ninety-one killed. 

Returns to Fort Strother — November 10. 

Attempted mutiny of volunteers at Fort Strother — No- 
vember 20 ( ?). 

Attempted mutiny of militia at Fort Strother — November 
21 (?). 

Third attempt at mutiny — November 23 (?). 

xxi 



CHRONOLOGY 

Fourth attempt at mutiny — December lo. 

Dismissal of volunteers in disgrace — December 12. 
1814. Receives reenforcements and marches south again — Jan- 
uary 17. 

At Talladega — January 18. 

At Hillabee Creek — January 19. 

At Enotachopco — January 20. 

At Emuckfau, eighty miles from Fort Strother — ^Jan- 
uary 21. 

Battle of Emuckfau — January 22. 

Battle of Enotachopco — January 24. In these two battles 
the Tennesseeans under Jackson lost twenty killed and 
seventy-five wounded ; the Creeks lost one hundred 
and eighty-nine killed and an unknown number of 
wounded. 

Back at Fort Strother — January 29. 

Arrival of Thirty-ninth United States Infantry — Feb- 
ruary 6. 

Executes Private John Wood for mutiny — March 14. 

Starts south again — March 18. 

Battle of Tohopeka, or Horse-shoe Bend — March 27. 
Tennesseeans under Jackson lose fifty-five killed and 
one hundred and forty-six wounded. Creeks exter- 
minated, losing five hundred and fifty-seven killed, over 
two hundred drowned ; and missing, probably killed, 
over two hundred men. End of war. 

Founds Fort Jackson and receives surrender of Weather- 
ford, chief of the Creeks — April. 

Appointed brigadier-general in United States Army — 
April 19. 

Troops ordered home — April 21. 

Appointed major-general in United States Army, vice 
William Henry Harrison, resigned — May i. 

Arrives at Nashville — May. 

Accepts appointment as major-general in United States 
Army — June 20. 

Negotiates treaty with Creeks — July 10. 

Treaty signed — August 10. 

War of 1812. First Florida Campaign. Leaves Fort 
Jackson for Mobile — September 12. 

Defence of Fort Bowycr by Major Lawrence — Septem- 
ber 15. 

Arrives Mobile — September 16. 

Mutiny at Fort Jackson — September 19-20. 
xxii 



CHRONOLOGY 

Leaves Mobile for Pensacola — November 3. 

Invades Spanish territory and seizes Pensacola — Novem- 
ber 7. 

British evacuate Fort Barrancas — November 8. 

Returns to Mobile and sends expedition to Appalachicola 
— November 16. 

War of 1812. The Nczu Orleans Campaign. Leaves for 
New Orleans — November 22. 

Arrives at New Orleans — December i. 

British fleet arrives off mouths of Mississippi — Decem- 
ber 9-14. 

Battle of Lake Borgne — December 14. 

Martial law proclaimed in New Orleans — December 16. 

British land opposite Bayou Bienvenu — December 22. 

Battle of Villere — December 23. American loss twenty- 
four killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded ; cap- 
tured, seventy-four ; total, two hundred and thirteen. 
British loss sixty-eight killed, one hundred and forty- 
five wounded ; captured, sixty- four ; total, two hundred 
and seventy-seven. 

Skirmish — December 28. American loss eight killed, 
eight wounded; total, sixteen. British loss fourteen 
killed, twenty-seven wounded ; total, forty-one. 

Destruction of the United States schooner " Carolina" — 
December 28. 
1815. Artillery duel — January i. British loss five guns captured, 
eight disabled; total, thirteen. 

Battle of New Orleans — January 8. American loss eight 
killed, thirteen wounded ; total, twenty-one. British 
loss over four thousand, of which eight hundred and 
forty-eight were killed and two thousand four hundred 
and sixty-eight severely wounded ; the remainder cap- 
tured. Many slightly wounded not reported. 

British break camp and begin retreat — January 18-19. 

Embarkation of British completed — January 27. 

Execution of six Tennessee militiamen convicted of 
mutiny at Mobile — February 21. 

Article by Louis Louallier urging resistance to Jackson's 
authority appears in Louisiana Gazette — March 3. 

Arrest of Louallier — March 5. 

Jackson served with a writ of habeas corpus by Judge 
Hall— March 5. 

Arrest of Judge Hall — March 5. 

Martial law in New Orleans abrogated — March 13. 

xxiii 



CHRONOLOGY 

Summoned by a bench warrant to appear before Judge 

Hall— March 24. 
Fined one thousand dollars for contempt of court. Fine 

paid — March 24. 
Mrs. Jackson joins her husband in New Orleans — 

April ig. 
Leaves New Orleans for home — April 26. 
Arrives at Nashville — May 15. 
At Washington, D. C. — November 17. 

1817. Seminole War. Second Florida Campaign. Ordered to 

Florida frontier — December 26. 

1818. Writes President Monroe that if desired he can take pos- 

session of Florida in sixty days — January 6. 
Receives orders — January 11. 
Leaves Nashville — January 22. 
March of Tennessee volunteers — January 31. 
Arrives at Fort Scott — March 9. 
Takes St. Mark's— April 7. 
Hangs Chiefs Hillis Hago (Francis) and Himollomico — 

April 8. 
Trial of Arbuthnot and Ambrister — April 27-28. 
Execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister — April 28. 
Seizes Pensacola a second time — May 24. 
Leaves Pensacola for Nashville — May 31. 
Arrives at Nashville — June. 

1819. Leaves for Washington — January 4. 
Arrives at Washington — January 27. 

House of Representatives sustains Jackson's course in 
Florida on all counts by decisive vote — February 10. 

Senate committee report (adverse) ordered laid on the 
table by vote of thirty-one to three — February 25. 

Visits Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, for public 
receptions, banquets, etc. — January and February. 

Returns to Washington — March 2. 

Leaves for Nashville — March 9. 

Banquet at Nashville — April 6. 

1820. Negotiates treaty with Choctaws — October 20. 

1821. Leaves Nashville for Florida via New Orleans — April 18. 
Arrives at New Orleans — April 27. 

Resigns from the army — May 31. 

Resignation accepted. Honorably discharged — June i.* 

* All Jackson's biographers say, or intimate, that Jackson resigned from the 
army. In this connection I call attention to the following communication from 

xxiv 



CHRONOLOGY 

Appointed governor of Florida — March ic* 

Arrives in the vicinity of Pensacola — June 17. 

Takes possession of Florida for the United States — 

July 17. 
Farewell address to the army (dated Montpelier, Alabama, 

May 31) promulgated with proclamation against orders 

of General Jacob Brown, commander-in-chief of the 

United States Army — July 21. 
Dispute with ex-Governor Callava — September. 
Resigns as governor of Florida — October. 
Returns to Nashville — November 3. 

1822. Suggested for the Presidency by newspapers in different 

parts of the country — (various dates). 
Formally nominated for President by the Legislature of 

Tennessee — Jul}' 20. 
Elected United States senator from Tennessee — October. 
Takes seat in the Senate — December 5. 

1823. Further Presidential discussion during the year. 
Appointed minister to Mexico — January 27. 

Declines appointment as minister to Mexico — March 15. 

1824. Presented with Washington's telescope and pistols — Jan- 

uary I. 
Guest of honor at grand ball given by John Quincy 

Adams, Secretary of State — January 8. 
More seriously considered for the Presidency — Spring. 
Nominated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania — March 5. 
Received medal voted by Congress — March 17. 
Receives plurality of electoral votes, but fails of election 

to the Presidency — November-December. 

1825. Defeated for election to Presidency in House of Repre- 

sentatives by John Quincy Adams, who receives vote 
of thirteen States against seven for Jackson and four 
for Crawford — February 9. 

Major-General F. C. Ainsworth, U. S. A., military secretary, War Department, 
Washington, D. C., under date of July 21, 1905: " Nothing has been found of 
record to show that Andrew Jackson tendered his resignation as a major-gene- 
ral in the United States Army. This officer was honorably discharged the ser- 
vice, as major-general, June i, 1821, under the act of Congress, approved March 
2, 1821." The act of Congress referred to was one reducing the army. 



* His latest biographers state that his resignation was accepted July 21 and 
the day after, July 22, he was appointed governor of Florida ! This is cer- 
tainly a mistake. The Department of State informs me that his appointment was 
dated March 10 ; therefore he received the appointment while still a major-gen- 
eral in the army. 

XXV 



CHRONOLOGY 

Charges Clay with corrupt bargain to promote election 
with Adams — February 14. 

Leaves for home — March. 

Denounces Administration — July. 

Resigns United States Senatorship and is formally re- 
nominated for the Presidency by the Legislature of 
Tennessee — October. 

1826. Promises wife to join church at close of political career. 

1827. Active political campaigning by friends. 

1828. Revisits New Orleans — January 8. 

Elected President of the United States — November- 
December. 
Death of Mrs. Jackson — December 22. 

1829. Goes to Washington — January 17. 
Announces Cabinet — February 26. 
First inaugural address — March 4. 

Begins correspondence with Reverend Doctor Ely about 

Mrs. Eaton — March 23. 
Interview with Reverend Doctors Ely and Campbell about 

Mrs. Eaton — September i. 
Cabinet meeting with Doctors Ely and Campbell about 

Mrs. Eaton — September 10. 
Pays especial social honors to Mrs. Eaton — Fall and 

Winter. 
Friends of administration embroiled with United States 

Bank over conduct of Mason, president of Portsmouth, 

New Hampshire, Branch — Summer and Fall. 
First annual message — December 8. 

1830. Jefferson's birthday dinner. Offers famous toast " Our 

Federal Union ! it must and shall be preserved" — 

April 13. 
Breaks with Vice-President Calhoun — May 13. 
Secures payment of Danish indemnities — May 27. 
Vetoes various internal improvement bills — May 27-31. 
Secures settlement of West India trade question with 

Great Britain — October 5. 
Second annual message — December 6. 
Concludes treaty with Choctaws — December 9. 

1831. Recommends removal of Southern Indians to the West 

(Indian Territory) — February 22. 
Dissolves Cabinet — April 7 to June 22. 
Negotiates treaty with France for payment of spoliation 

claims — July 4. 
Third annual message — December 6. 
xxvi 



CHRONOLOGY 

1832. Treaty with France ratified — February 22. 

Vetoes the bill to recharter the United States 

Bank — July 10. 
Reelected for Presidency — November-December. 
Vetoes internal' improvement bills — December 6. 
Issues Proclamation against Nullification of South 

Carolina — December 10. 

1833. Special message declaring purpose to use force against 

South Carolina and invoking cooperation of Congress 
(Force Bill) — January 16. 

Signs Clay Compromise Tariff Bill — February. 

Second inaugural address — March 4. 
.,,^-A.ssaulted by Lieutenant Randolph — May 6. 

Tour through New England — Spring. 

Receives degree of LL.D. from Harvard College — June 26. 

Reads paper to Cabinet declaring purpose to remove gov- 
ernment deposits from the United States Bank — Sep- 
tember 18. 

Appoints Taney Secretary of the Treasury, vice 
Duane, removed, and orders deposits withdrawn 
from the United States Bank — September 23. 

Orders public moneys deposited in various State banks — 
September 26. 

Refuses to send paper read to Cabinet, September 18, to 
Senate — December 12. 

Fifth annual message — December 4. 

Vetoes Land Bill — December 4. 

Transmits to Senate various Indian treaties. 

1834. Formally censured by Senate for removing public de- 

posits from the United States Bank — March 28. 
Formally protests to Senate against censure — April 15. 
Treaty with Cherokees — June 23. 
Sixth annual message — December i. 

1835. Celebrates payment of the national debt with grand ban- 

quet — January 8. 
^^•Attempted assassination by man named Lawrence — Jan- 
uary 30. 

Threatens France and directs American minister, Living- 
stone, to leave France if French Chambers do not make 
appropriation to pay French spoliation claims accord- 
ing to treaty — February 24. 

Special message to Congress concerning the non-payment 
of the French spoliation claims — February 25. 

Publishes order concerning death of Lafayette — ^June 21. 

xxvii 



CHRONOLOGY 

Directs postmaster at Charleston, South Carolina, not to J 

forward abolition documents — August 4. ' 

Seventh annual message, dealing vigorously with French 

spoliation claims — December 7. J 

1836. Special message refusing to apologize to France for Ian- 1 

guage of message of February 25, 1835, and urging 

preparations for war — January 15. 
Accepts mediation of Great Britain in affair with France 

— February 22. 
Announces to Congress payment of French spoliation 

CLAIMS — May 10. 
Issues famous specie circular — July 11. 
Eighth annual message — December 5. j 

1837. Expunging resolution passed in Senate removing cen- 

sure OF i834^anuary 17. 
Issues Farewell Address to the Nation — March 4. 
Returns to the Hermitage. 
1839. Joins the Presbyterian Church. 

1843. Makes his last will and testament — ^June 7. 

1844. Urges election of Polk. 

1845. Dies, six p.m., Sunday — June 8. 
Burial by the side of his wife at the Hermitage, near 

Nashville, Tennessee — ^June 10. 



The True 
Andrew Jackson 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

Andrew Jackson, saddler, school-teacher, lawyer, 
congressman, senator, judge, merchant, planter, sports- 
man, soldier, President, and for many years the political 
dictator of his country, was born early in the morning 
of the fifteenth of March, 1767 — where? 

Parton alleges that he first saw the light in the log 
cabin of one George McKemey (which Parton spells 
McCamie), his uncle by marriage. Parton further de- 
clares that this cabin was situated in a settlement known 
as the Waxhaws, about one-quarter of a mile north of 
the boundary line between the two Carolinas. The 
Waxhaws settlement, so called from the name of the 
Indian tribe which had once lived there, was situated 
on Waxhaw Creek, about a hundred and sixty miles 
northwest of Charleston. It lay partly in North and 
partly in South Carolina. 

Whether Jackson was born in North or South Caro- 
lina is a question which has been furiously argued. 
Buell strives to reconcile the different opinions by 
stating that at the time of Jackson's birth the Mc- 
Kemey house was believed by everyone to stand on 
South Carolina territory, but that a survey subsequent 
to the Revolution disclosed the fact that it was in North 
Carolina. Sumner, Colyar, and Brown, all following 

25 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Parton apparently, accredit Jackson to North Carolina, 
as do most of the encyclopaedias. 

Jackson himself, to the end of his life, believed that 
he was by birth a South Carolinian, and so stated fre- 
quently. I think he was correct in his belief; conse- 
quently to South Carolina I accord the honor of his 
birth. The question is discussed at great length by 
Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., in a paper prepared for this 
volume, which appears as Appendix A. I respectfully 
refer the reader to this brilliant essay, which to me is 
conclusive. 
-7 Andrew Jackson was the posthumous child of an 
Irish immigrant of the same name, who arrived in this 
* country in 1765 with his wife, Elizabeth Hutchinson, 
. " and two boys, Robert, aged two, and Hugh, a baby of 
five months. One of the elder Jackson brothers had been 
a soldier under Braddock, Wolfe, and Amherst. He had 
also spent part of his service in North Carolina. It 
was due to his representations that the Jackson family 
concluded to emigrate. On the ship which carried An- 
drew Jackson, Senior, and his family were several of 
his relatives, among whom may be mentioned the Craw- 
ford family, one of whom, like George McKemey, had 
married a sister of Mrs. Jackson. These people all 
settled about the primitive log Presbyterian church in 
the Waxhaws territory. 

Few communities have given so many great and use- 
ful men to the nation as this handful of poor Irish. 
McCready says : " At the Waxhaws, the father of John 
Calhoun first settled ; there, too, Andrew Pickens [gen- 
eral in the Revolution] met Rebecca Calhoun, whom he 
married. At the Waxhaws grew up William Richard- 
son Davie, the distinguished partisan leader of the 
Revolution, governor of North Carolina and minister 
to France, the founder of the University of North Caro- 
lina. From the same community came Calhoun's great 

26 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

rival, the great Georgian, William H. Crawford; so 
that from this people came three of the greatest men of 
their times, — Jackson, Calhoun, and Crawford, — men 
upon and around whom turned the national politics of 
their day and whose antagonisms convulsed the whole 
country. To these must be added William Smith, judge 
on the State Bench and United States senator, whose 
State Rights antedated Calhoun's, and who was twice 
voted for as Vice-President in the Electoral College, 
and Dr. John Brown, one of the first professors of the 
South Carolina College and the founder of the Presby- 
terian church in Columbia, a schoolmate of Jackson, 
who rode with him when they were boys in their teens 
under Davie and Sumter at Hanging Rock. From the 
Waxhaws, too, came Stephen D. Miller, a man of great 
power in his day and generation in society, at the bar, 
and in the councils of his country. James H. Thorn- 
well, an eminent divine and orator, president of the 
South Carolina College, and J. Marion Sims, a sur- 
geon of world-wide fame, and in his department doubt- 
less the greatest of his time." 

It seems probable that Andrew Jackson, Senior, was 
the poorest and most improvident of the lot, for he 
had no money with which to buy land and was forced 
to content himself with a claim on Twelve-Mile Creek, 
a branch of the Catawba. His tract was poor in char- 
acter and situated disadvantageously some seven miles 
from the better provided members of the party about 
the church. His struggle with the wilderness was a 
short one. for after two years of arduous toil he died, 
early in March, 1767. 

The Jackson family, poor and humble as it was in 
America, was even more humble and obscure in Ire- 
land, although when the father of our immigrant died 
he left a small sum of money to his grandson, the sub- 
ject of this biography. It is known that they came from 

27 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Carrickfergus, a town near Belfast, in the Province of 
Ulster. It has been found impossible to trace them back 
for more than two generations. The origin of the 
family is utterly unknown even in tradition. Jackson's 
great-grandfather was once bailiff of the Assize Court, 
once member of the Town Council, and several times 
foreman of the Grand Jury, which proves that he was 
at least respectable, as the legacy referred to above, 
three hundred pounds, indicates thrift in the family, 
but where he came from, or what his origin, no one 
has yet been able to discover. One thing is certain, 
there is no evidence whatsoever that there was any 
Scottish blood in them at all, and the pleasant fiction 
that because they belonged to the Presbyterian Church 
they were therefore not pure-blooded Irish may be 
courteously but firmly dismissed. Whatever justifica- 
tion there may be for the hybrid term Scotch-Irish 
there is no evidence that Jackson represented the 
alleged mixture that comes under that curious name. 

" We here," wrote the Mayor of Belfast, Ireland, 
after Jackson became President of the United States, 
" are as proud of General Jackson as you in America 
possibly can be. This region has produced not a few 
great men, but none as eminent as he. We always 
speak of him as ' the great Irish President of the United 
States,' and in our toasts at public dinners his name is 
seldom omitted. Though our investigation as to his 
lineal ancestry here has not been very successful, yet 
you may rest assured that the ties of common nation- 
ality by which we hold him in our esteem and our 
affection are hardly less strong than those of blood 
kin. You may in fact say, as we all do, that Andrew 
Jackson is the descendant of North Ireland at large and 
its most illustrious son." 

If we judge from his qualities, Jackson was distinctly 
Irish. He never recognized or admitted anv Scottish 

28 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

blood in his veins. He was a member of the Hibernian 
Society of Philadelphia, which he joined in 1819. He 
did not hesitate to describe himself as of Irish origin 
on several occasions. For instance, on the twenty- 
second of June, 1833, he spoke as follows at a reception 
given him by the Charitable Irish Society in Boston : 

" I feel much gratified, sir, at this testimony of re- 
spect shown me by the Charitable Irish Society of this 
city. It is with great pleasure that I see so many 
of the countrymen of my father assembled on this occa- 
sion. 1 have always been proud of my ancestry and of 
being descended from that noble race, and rejoice that 
I am so nearly allied to a country which has so much 
to recommend it to the good wishes of the world ; 
would to God, sir, that Irishmen on the other side of 
the great ivater enjoyed the comforts, happiness, con- 
tentment, and liberty that they enjoy here. 1 am well 
aware, sir, that Irishmen have never been backward in 
giving their support to the cause of liberty. They have 
fought, sir, for this country valiantly, and I have no 
doubt would fight again were it necessary, but I hope 
it will be long before the institutions of our country 
need support of that kind. Accept my best wishes for 
the happiness of you all." v 

Andrew Jackson, Senior, was a linen weaver, as had 
been his father. Elizabeth Hutchinson's father followed 
the same trade. Tradition has little to tell us about the 
character of Andrew and not much about that of Eliza- 
beth, but it is evident from such incidents as have been 
unearthed regarding Jackson's mother that she was a 
woman of unusual strength of character and courage. 
It is generally the case that a great man has origin in a 
great mother. His relations to her will be discussed later. 

Jackson could never speak of his father without visi- 
ble emotion. Francis P. Blair used to relate that some 
years before he became President, he tried to locate 

29 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

exactly his father's grave at Waxhaws, with the inten- 
tion of placing there a suitable memento, but it could 
not be distinguished from other unmarked mounds in 
the old churchyard. " I have heard him," said Mr. 
Blair, *' remark that his father died like a hero in 
battle, fighting for his wife and babes — fighting an up- 
hill battle against poverty and adversity such as no one 
in our time could comprehend. When asked if he had 
ever visited the scenes of his birth and childhood," pur- 
sued Mr. Blair, " he would say ' No ! I couldn't bear 
to. It would suggest nothing but bereavement, grief, 
and suffering of those dearest to me. I couldn't stand 
it. It would break me down.' " 

When Andrew Jackson, Senior, died he left his wife 
with two little boys and practically no property. He 
had not proved up his claim and there is no evidence in 
the records of land transfers that he ever owned a foot 
of ground. Mrs. Jackson, then in the last stages of 
pregnancy, was unable to work the farm. Her brother- 
in-law, Crawford, had an invalid wife. He was a 
man of considerable substance, well-to-do for the time 
and community, and to him she determined to repair, 
with the idea that when her health was restored she 
could take the place of her ailing sister in the Crawford 
household. On the way she stopped over night — of 
-fiecessity — at the McKemey house, and there Andrew, 
Junior, was born. She was well enough to travel in 
three weeks, a rather long convalescence for a frontier 
woman of that period. Leaving Hugh in the McKemey 
home, she journeyed to the Crawford place with Robert 
and the infant Andrew. She received a warm welcome. 
The household affairs were turned over to her, greatly 
to the relief of her ailing sister and her husband. 

Elizabeth Jackson was evidently a woman of some 
education, for when Andrew was five years old she 
began to teach him to read and write. It is stated that 

30 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

he received more thorough mental training than either 
of his brothers, because Mrs. Jackson designed him for 
the Presbyterian Church. However, the two boys who 
were with her fared much alike, and the education of 
both of them was of a higher order than that of the 
boys surrounding them. 

At seven young Andrew was sent to an old-field 
school. " An old-field is not a field at all, but a pine 
forest. When crop after crop of cotton, without rota- 
tion, has exhausted the soil, the fences are taken away, 
the land lies waste, the young pines at once spring up, 
and soon cover the whole field with a thick growth of 
wood." On the principle that if it was good for nothing 
else it would do for educational purposes, the surround- 
ing farmers would devote such fields to school buildings 
of the rudest character. 

The author of " Georgia Scenes" describes an edifice 
of this kind : " It was a simple log pen, about twenty 
feet square, with a doorway cut out of the logs, to 
which was fitted a rude door made of clapboards and 
swung on wooden hinges. The roof was covered with 
clapboards also, which were retained in their places by 
heavy logs placed on them. The chimney was built of 
logs diminishing in size from the ground to the top, 
and overspread inside and out with red clay and mor- 
tar. The classic hut occupied a lovely spot, over- 
whelmed by majestic hickories, towering poplars, and 
strong-armed oaks. ... A large three-inch plank (if 
it deserve that name, for it was wrought from half a 
tree's trunk entirely with the axe), attached to the logs 
by means of wooden pins, served the whole school for 
a writing-desk. At a convenient distance below it, and 
on a line with it, stretched a smooth log, resting upon the 
logs of the house, which answered for the writers' seat." 

Such a school was carried on in a way as primitive 
as were its appointments. *' An itinerant schoolmaster 

31 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

presents himself in the neighborhood," writes Parton, 
" the responsible farmers pledge him a certain number 
of pupils, and an old-field school is established for the 
season. . . . Reading, writing, and arithmetic were all 
the branches taught in the early day. Among a crowd 
of urchins seated on the slab benches of a school like 
this, fancy a tall, slender boy, with bright blue eyes, 
a freckled face, an abundance of long, sandy hair, and 
clad in coarse, copperas-colored cloth, with bare feet 
dangling and kicking — and you have in your mind's eye 
a picture of Andy as he appeared in his old-field days in 
the Waxhaws settlement." 

At nine Jackson was transferred to Mr. David Hum- 
phries' Academy, which was established in the centre of 
the Waxhaws settlement, near the church. He attended 
this Academy for at least three years and possibly stud- 
ied another year at Queen's College, Charlotte, at that 
time the most ambitious educational institution in the 
vicinity. He says himself that he attended school until 
he was fourteen years of age. 

He was not a well-educated man. His acquirements 
were confined to the ordinary English branches, in none 
of which was he proficient. Once in a while a Latin 
word or phrase appears in his writings, but there is no 
evidence that he knew anything about the classics. His 
grammar was poor and he disliked the study, although 
he was always fond of geography. " He never learned 
to spell correctly, though he was a better speller than 
Frederick II., Marlborough, Napoleon, or Washington. 
Few men of his day, and no women, were correct spel- 
lers" — thus Parton. Still he was probably slightly better 
educated than the majority of backwoods children with 
whom he was thrown. 

After the death of his mother he taught school in the 
winter of 1782-3, at the age of sixteen. In 1784 he 
began the study of law at Salisbury, North Carolina, 

32 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

with Spruce McKay, a lawyer of some local reputation. 
While President he was reminded by a friend from 
Salisbury that he had formerly lived there. " Yes," he 
replied, " I was but a raw lad then, but I did the best 
I could." Quite Jacksonian ! He always did the best 
he could; there was no lack of thoroughness about 
him. 

After remaining with this lawyer for a year and a half, 
he continued his studies with Judge John Stokes and 
was admitted to the bar of North Carolina in the spring 
of 1787. That completed his formal pursuit of learning. 
It by no means, however, ended his education. . While 
he never was a bookish man, he was too shrewd and too 
keen in intellect, as well as too ambitious, not to be 
aware of the value of knowledge. A man of affairs, he 
studied men. The active quickness of his mind enabled 
him in the course of his long life to acquire much in- 
formation, and few were the situations in which he 
found himself where he was obliged to confess ignorance 
or to blush for lack of information. It would never have 
occurred to him that he was ignorant, anyway! Gen- 
erally, whatever the emergency, he was able to rise to 
the measure of it, and if he did not dominate it, at least 
he made a fairly respectable attempt at it. By observa- 
tion and attrition he became one of the best informed 
men of his time on those subjects which interested him, 
as law, military tactics, politics, farming, horse breeding, 
and the like. "As a statesman and a financier, however, 
there was much to be desired in his character. Although 
he never became a good speller, his grounding must 
have been thorough to have enabled him to build so 
well upon it. As a writer, and more especially as a 
speaker, he was clear, cogent, forceful, ready, and not 
infrequently eloquent. After he became President 
Harvard College conferred upon him the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Laws. 
3 33 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

His boyhood experiences were strenuous in the ex- 
treme and gave a further twist to his natural Celtic 
dislike to the British. On the twenty-ninth of May, 
1780, Colonel Tarleton, with his rangers, fell upon four 
hundred American Continentals and militiamen, mainly 
Virginians, under Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Buford, 
and what has been called the " Massacre of the Wax- 
haws" ensued. The history of the resulting conflict is 
a confused one up to a certain point. Tarleton out- 
generalled Buford and by false information caught him 
at a decided disadvantage. An attack was delivered by 
the British to which a mere nominal resistance was 
made. There is a dispute as to these premises, but what 
followed is clearly established. Buford and his men 
surrendered and were butchered in cold blood after they 
had thrown down their arms. One hundred and thirteen 
were killed and one hundred and fifty severely wounded. 
Fifty were taken prisoners and the remainder escaped, 
many of them wounded. After the departure of Tarle- 
ton the wounded were received by the settlers, as many 
of them as could get in being cared for in the church. 
Foremost among those engaged in taking care of the 
wounded were Elizabeth Jackson and her two younger 
sons. 

The little lad of thirteen, as he moved about among 
the sufferers in attendance upon his mother, received 
a lesson in British cruelty which was indelibly im- 
printed upon his boyish mind. The Jackson family was 
staunchly patriotic. Hugh, although only seventeen, had 
been a regularly enlisted trooper in Major Davie's 
famous partisan legion. At the battle of Stono, on the 
twentieth of June, 1779, although seriously ill at the 
time and under orders to retire, he had insisted upon 
taking his place in the fighting line and had died soon 
after the battle from a relapse brought about by his 
efforts. 

34 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

It being vacation time, Robert and Andrew attached 
themselves as supernumeraries to Major Davie's dra- 
goons during the summer of 1780. I suppose that the 
boys may have been allowed to help out with the horses 
or do other chores by the free riders of the gallant 
little band. Davie said afterwards that Jackson acted 
as his mounted orderly — a responsible position for a lad. 
I am sure that the two youngsters were there with their 
mother's consent in view of her well-known patriotism 
and devotion to her adopted country. Her intense an- 
tagonism to England and English rule is another evi- 
dence that she at least was not Scottish. 

At any rate, both boys were present at the famous 
little battle of Hanging Rock on the sixth of August, 
where Sumter and Davie captured the British camp, dis- 
lodged the British forces from their position, looted the 
camp, and would have put the redcoats to utter rout 
had not Sumter's men got out of hand when they got 
at the drink in the tents. After four hours of varying 
fighting the Americans withdrew, leaving the ruined 
camp in possession of the British, who reoccupied it on 
their heels. Theoretically it was a victory for the de- 
fenders; practically it was a defeat. 

History is silent as to what part the Jackson boys took 
in the fighting. But little, I imagine. At any rate, they 
were there, and they remained with Davie for some 
little time thereafter. Davie was one of the best partisan 
leaders of the Revolution. His fame has been somewhat 
obscured by the greater lustre which attaches to the 
names of Marion, Sumter, and Pickens, but he was a 
soldier who was never surprised or defeated. This 
young graduate of Princeton disposed of all his property 
to equip and maintain his celebrated legion of hard 
fighters. At the Hanging Rock affair his were the only 
troops that did not break out into mutinous disorder 
and excess. All that Jackson ever learned by experience 

35 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

of the art of war, until he took command as a major- 
general, he learned from William Richardson Davie, and 
some of the glory of the pupil should accrue to his first 
instructor. By recalling one's own boyhood it is easy 
to realize what an abiding impression this experience 
made on the young trooper. Jackson remembered Davie 
with the keenest admiration, and in after life often 
referred to him in the highest terms as a soldier and as 
a man. 

After the disastrous defeat of Gates at Camden Mrs. 
Jackson, who had previously temporarily abandoned her 
home and plunged into the wilderness with her boys 
rather than take the compulsory oath of allegiance to 
Great Britain, once more retired from the Waxhaws 
and took up her residence with another relative named 
Wilson, four miles from Charlotte. She returned to 
the Waxhaws in February, 1781. 

While at the Wilsons' Andrew paid for his board by 
doing what New England people call " chores." He 
brought in wood, " pulled fodder," picked beans, drove 
cattle, went to mill, and took the farming utensils to be 
mended. Respecting the last-named duty there is a 
striking reminiscence. " Never," Dr. Wilson, who was 
a playmate of the stranger, would say, " did Andrew 
come home from the shops without bringing with him 
some new weapon with which to kill the enemy. Some- 
times it was a rude spear, which he would forge while 
waiting for the blacksmith to finish his job. Sometimes 
it was a club or a tomahawk. Once he fastened the 
blade of a scythe to a pole, and, on reaching home, began 
to cut down the weeds with it that grew about the house, 
assailing them with extreme fury, and occasionally utter- 
ing words like these : ' Oh, if I were a man, how I 
would sweep down the British with my grass-blade !' " 
He found something better than a " grass-blade" with 
which to " sweep them down" later on ! 

36 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

Andrew was subsequently concerned in one or two 
trifling skirmishes with the Tories, and in the inter- 
necine conflict which raged so hotly through the Caro- 
linas, was finally made prisoner with his brother by a 
detachment of the enemy, which surprised the settlement 
at Waxhaws. 

On a rumor of the approach of a party of British some 
fifty men had gathered in the Waxhaws church. Cap- 
tain Coffin, who commanded the assailants, deceived the 
defenders by covering his advance with a party of 
Tories who posed as friends. After a hot little struggle, 
in which the Jackson boys took part, the Americans 
were dispersed. Eleven were subsequently captured and 
the rest killed or wounded. The commander of the 
Waxhaws men was Jackson's cousin. Lieutenant Craw- 
ford. The Jackson boys, who were among those taken, 
received further illustrations of what was to be ex- 
pected under the gentle regime of the redcoats when 
Lieutenant Crawford's house was pillaged and his chil- 
dren and wife, with a baby at her breast, were treated 
with shocking indignities. It was to this period that 
tradition refers the anecdote, which is certainly true, 
that a British officer commanded young Andrew Jackson 
to black his boots. The boy refused, stating that he 
was a prisoner of war, and demanded the treatment of 
one. Instead of respecting this hardy declaration the 
brutal officer struck the boy with his sabre. Andrew 
threw up his hand, but did not completely ward the blow, 
for both head and arm were badly cut and the scars of 
this ferocious attack he carried with him to his grave. 

Failing with Andrew, the Britisher made the same 
request of Robert and got the same plucky, defiant 
answer. He meted out the same punishment, too. The 
two boys, with other prisoners, were hurried to Cam- 
den and interned in the stockaded prison there. Small- 
pox broke out and raged virulently, Robert Jackson 

37 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

came down with it. Andrew at first was spared. 
During their captivity the battle of Hobkirk's Hill was 
fought, in which Lord Rawdon rather ingloriously de- 
feated General Nathanael Greene. The stockade in 
which the boys were confined was on a hill on the out- 
skirts of Camden. From this hill a plain view of the 
American troops as they advanced was had. Realizing 
that there would be a battle, Jackson spent the night in 
making a hole in the stockade with an old razor which 
was used for cutting meat. Through this hole he wit- 
nessed the fighting the next morning. It was his second 
and last lesson in practical soldiering. Thereafter he 
was to give, not receive, instruction in that department 
of human endeavor. 

Elizabeth Jackson, greatly distressed at the deten- 
tion of her two small but doughty boys, prevailed upon 
a local militia captain, who had made some Tories 
prisoners, to allow her to try to effect an exchange. She 
journeyed to Camden, saw Lord Rawdon, and succeeded 
in making the exchange, including, of course, many 
others, for whose release she stipulated, with her sons. 
Robert was so far gone with the dread disease that he 
had to be held on his horse. Mrs. Jackson rode one 
horse, supporting him on another. There were but two 
horses available, and young Andrew, although the small- 
pox had already stricken him, plodded behind them on 
foot, forty miles, to the rude home on the Waxhaws. A 
few days after their arrival Robert died — like his oldest 
brother, a patriotic little martyr to his country's service 
— and Andrew came near to following his example. 
They might better have resisted the disease had not 
their systems been enfeebled by the frightful neglect 
and starvation to which they had been subjected. 

English oppression had removed two of the family 
of four, and it was only after a hard struggle that Eliza- 
beth Jackson saved the life of her remaining son. She 

38 



FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS 

was destined to lay down her own life for the cause she 
loved. There were a number of prisoners confined in 
the hulks at Charleston. Among them were many of the 
Waxhaws people, some of whom were related to the 
Jackson-Crawford connection. So soon as she could 
leave Andrew this .heroic woman determined to journey 
to Charleston to do what she could for her fellow- 
settlers and relatives who were suflfering and dying un- 
cared for and unheeded. Perhaps she volunteered be- 
cause she could better be spared than mothers of larger 
families. Leaving Andrew to the care of his relatives, 
the Crawfords, in the fall of 1781, with two other de- 
voted women she went down to Charleston — tradition 
has it " on foot," although this is not likely — laden with 
such rude provision for the comfort of the prisoners as 
the settlement could muster. 

After she discharged her errand she caught the ship 
fever — which was the name then given to yellow fever 
— and died near Charleston after a brief illness — the 
third martyr in the family. She was buried hastily with 
other victims of the plague, and although in after years 
Jackson sought earnestly to find her grave, he never 
succeeded in locating the spot where she was laid away. 
No wonder Jackson hated the English ! 

After her death the lonely little orphan left the 
Crawfords and went to live with another uncle, Joseph 
White, where he worked some time as a saddler, taught 
school, visited Charleston, and spent his legacy reck- 
lessly. Fortune, however, had better things in store for 
the young Irish-American than the making of harness 
or the squandering of patrimony in idle pleasure. It 
was not long before he began the study of law, was 
admitted to the bar, and subsequently removed to his 
future home across the mountains in Tennessee. 



39 



II 



LAWYER 



Jackson's specific profession in life was law. He 
practised privately for a short time, then for several 
years was public prosecutor, or what is now called dis- 
trict attorney, for Tennessee. After an intermediate 
experience as congressman and senator from the new 
State he was elevated from the latter office to the 
Supreme Court of Tennessee. After he resigned from 
the bench to devote himself to planting and trade he 
never resumed the practice of law. Of legal knowledge 
Jackson had little. It was his salvation that probably 
most of the practitioners of his time and locality were 
not much better off than he. There were great lawyers 
in the United States in those days, — never have there 
been greater, indeed, — but there were few of them west 
of the Allegheny Mountains. Those who flourished 
there came after Jackson's career at the bar. 

As a personality Jackson was head and shoulders over 
any of his contemporaries. He possessed three qualifi- 
cations for the then dangerous office of pviblic prose- 
cutor, without which he would have been a total failure. 
They were a dauntless courage, an inflexible deter- 
mination, and sound common-sense. Except when his 
prejudices were awakened by insults or injuries, fancied 
or otherwise, to himself or his friends, or to those 
whose circumstances gave them a claim on his chivalric 
nature, he was eminently fair and just. There are no 
reports of the Tennessee courts until after the close of 
Jackson's terms of office. Unfortunately, none of his 
decisions as judge has been preserved, consequently no 
one ever refers to him for the establishment of a pre- 

40 



LAWYER 

cedent or the decision of a nice point of law. Yet no 
man seems to have questioned his impartiaUty on the 
bench. He was so fiercely assailed in after life, his every 
action was so keenly scrutinized, and everything that 
possibly could be turned to his disadvantage was so 
openly proclaimed, that the absence of any general 
charge of injustice or inefficiency is conclusive proof 
that he made a wise and upright judge. 

To be a district attorney then was to take one's life in 
one's hand. It is not a pleasant situation now, and it 
entailed most serious risks in primitive days. The 
breaker of law often had public sentiment on his side. 
The laws were harsher in those days, and for that reason 
it was more difficult to enforce them. Jackson, however, 
was equal to the situation. Before he had been a month 
in Nashville he had issued over seventy writs to delin- 
quent debtors and had brought them to a speedy trial. 

As Fiske says : " Amid such a turbulent population 
the public prosecutor must needs be a man of nerve 
and resource. Jackson proved himself quite equal to the 
task of introducing law and order in so far as it de- 
pended upon him. ' Just inform Mr. Jackson,' said 
Governor Blount, when sundry malfeasances were re- 
ported to him ; ' he will be sure to do his duty, and the 
offenders will be punished.' " 

Colonel Putnam, of the Tennessee Historical Society, 
states that " The records of the Quarter Sessions Court 
of Davidson County, the county of which Nashville is 
the capital, show that at the April term, 1790, there were 
one hundred and ninety-two cases on the two dockets 
(Appearance docket and Trial docket) and that Andrew 
Jackson was employed as counsel in forty-two of them. 
On one leaf of the record of the January term, 1793, 
there are thirteen suits entered, mostly for debt, in every 
one of which Andrew Jackson was employed. At the 
April term of the same year he was counsel in seventy- 

41 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

two out of one hundred and fifty-five cases. In most 
of these he was counsel for the defence. At the July 
term of the same year he was employed in sixty cases 
out of one hundred and thirty-two. In the four terms 
of 1794 there were three hundred and ninety-seven cases 
before the same court, in two hundred and twenty-eight 
of which Jackson acted as counsel. And during these 
and later years he practised at the courts of Jonesboro 
and other towns in East Tennessee." 

Colyar had unearthed a note in the court records of 
Sumner County, Tennessee, at Gallatin, to the effect that 
in a certain case the court " Thanks Andrew Jackson 
for his brave conduct." Here follows the explanation 
of the words. 

" Judge Guild, who was admitted to the bar at Gal- 
latin in 1825, hunted up two men who had been mem- 
bers of the county court at the time referred to and 
from them learned the following: 

" ' That there was a gang of bullies in the county, 
who on public days got up fights and committed other 
offences and then bullied the court and refused to be 
tried ; that up to the time Jackson went there as attor- 
ney-general the justices holding the court had been 
dominated by these bullies ; that Jackson had full infor- 
mation before he came of the condition ; that he came 
on horseback, hitched his horse, and came into court, 
which had already been opened, and, getting his docket, 
looked over the cases, and the first thing he did was to 
call one of the cases in which the defendant had refused 
to be tried ; that the defendant came up and said he was 
not going to be tried.' 

" Judge Guild's remembrance was that the old men 
who had been on the bench at the time said that Jack- 
son in a mild way remonstrated with the man about his 
case and told him that the case had to be tried ; that 
the defendant used offensive language and said no 

42 



LAWYER 

court could try him ; that thereupon Jackson pulled his 
saddlebags out from under the table and took out two 
large pistols — such as travellers carried — and laid them 
on the table. The bully grabbed at the pistols, and the 
struggle between him and Jackson led to a general fight. 
The good citizens, inspired by the courage of young 
Jackson, fell in and whipped the whole crowd. Jackson 
and his man having fallen out of the door, Jackson held 
to him and brought him back and tried him, and when 
it was all over the court ordered the clerk to put on 
the minutes Judge Guild assured me he had seen: 
' The Court thanks Andrew Jackson for his brave con- 
duct.' " 

When Jackson became judge he was equally fearless 
and determined. Parton thus writes of his famous epi- 
sode with Colonel Harrison : " In the fall of 1803, while 
Jackson was on his way from Nashville to Jonesboro, 
where he was about to hold a court, he was informed 
by a friend who met him on the road that a combination 
had been formed against him, and that on his arrival at 
Jonesboro he might expect to be mobbed. He was 
sick at the time of an intermittent fever, which had so 
reduced his strength that he was scarcely able to sit on 
his horse. But on hearing this intelligence he spurred 
forward and reached the town, but so exhausted that he 
could not dismount without help. Burning with fever, 
he lay down upon a bed in the tavern. A few minutes 
after a friend came in and said that Colonel Harrison 
and 'a regiment of men' were in front of the tavern, 
who had assembled for the purpose of tarring and 
feathering him. His friend advised him to lock his door. 
Jackson rose suddenly, threw his door wide open, and 
said, with that peculiar emphasis which won him so 
many battles without fighting, — 

" ' Give my compliments to Colonel Harrison, and 
tell him my door is open to receive him and his regiment 

43 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

whenever they choose to wait upon me, and that I hope 
the colonel's chivalry will induce him to lead his men, 
not follow them.' " 

" The ' regiment,' either because they were ashamed 
to harm a sick man or afraid to attack a desperate one, 
thought better of their purpose and gradually dispersed. 
Judge Jackson recovered from his fever, held his court 
as usual, and heard nothing further of any hostile de- 
signs at Jonesboro." 

On one occasion the sheriff was ordered to bring a 
desperate criminal into the court. When he reported 
that he was unable to arrest the man, Jackson descended 
from the bench, directed the sheriff to summion him, 
received the summons, walked out into the street and 
apprehended the man, marched him into the court, re- 
sumed his seat on the bench, and there sentenced him 
for punishment. He was quite willing then, as always, 
to do everything himself. 

Jackson was one of the few Presidents of the United 
States who had been on both sides of the bar — i.e., both 
as prosecutor and prosecuted. During the New Orleans 
campaign, after the defeat of the British, a citizen of the 
town, Louis Louaillier, published an article in the 
Louisiana Gazette claiming that peace had been restored, 
although it had not been officially proclaimed, that the 
British had departed, and that martial law — which 
Jackson had declared and established without warrant 
of the constitution but for the great good and benefit 
of the citizens — should be abrogated immediately ; ac- 
cordingly he urged resistance to Jackson's authority in 
case he did not at once annul his proclamation. Louail- 
lier evidently did not know the temper of the man whom 
he was attacking, for Jackson promptly ordered him 
under arrest, his justification being the very procla- 
mation by wh^ martial law had been established, as 
follows : V*- 

44 



LAWYER 

"The Major-General Commanding assumes every responsi- 
bility that may attach to this proceeding. Martial law can only 
be justified by the necessity of the case. The Major-General 
proclaims it at his own risk and upon his sole responsibility 
not alone to the Government, but to individuals. It is a meas- 
ure unknown to the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
The effect of its proclamation is to abrogate for the time being 
the authority of the civil law ; to bring all persons resident in 
the district comprised by it within the purview of martial law ; 
so that all those in that district capable of defending the coun- 
try are subject to such law by virtue of the proclamation and 
may be tried by its provisions and methods during its continu- 
ance." 

Judge Dominick A. Hall, of the United States Court, 
granted a writ of habeas corpus requiring the production 
of Louaillier before him immediately. Jackson dealt 
with this situation as promptly as he had with the other. 
He issued the following order to Colonel Arbuckle, 
which was at once carried out : 

" New Orleans, March 5th, 1815, 

" Seven o'clock p.m. 
" Headquarters Seventh Military District, 

" Having received proof that Dominick A. Hall has been 
aiding and abetting and exciting mutiny within my camp, you 
will forthwith order a detachment to arrest and confine him, 
and report to me as soon as he is arrested. You will be vigi- 
lant ; the agents of our enemy are more numerous than was 
expected. You will be guarded against escapes. 

" A. Jackson, Major-General Commanding." 

After Judge Hall was arrested, he and Louaillier were 
both exiled from the United States ! " I have thought 
proper," said the general, " to send you beyond the limits 
of my encampment, to prevent a repetition of the im- 
proper conduct with which you have been charged. You 
will remain without the lines of my sentinels until the 
ratification of peace is regularly announced, or until the 
British shall have left the southern coast." 

45 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Jackson certainly had no hesitation whatever in 
standing by his own proclamation. When he said a 
thing he meant it, and other people got involved in 
difficulties by failing to understand that. They soon 
learned that they were dealing with a man who never 
took a position in which he was not prepared to go to 
the last limit to sustain his course, right or wrong 
though it might be. He was like Lord Say and Seal in 
that. 

When he was finally persuaded that peace had been 
declared — and it was eminently proper for him to take 
no ex-parte statements or opinions to that effect, but 
only official notice, especially with the British forces still 
on the coast — he, of course, abrogated martial law and 
restored, the community to the operation of the civil law 
and the jurisdiction of the civil courts. This was Judge 
Hall's opportunity. 

The angry judge at once issued a summons for the 
summary general couched in the following terms: 

" That the said Major-General Andrew Jackson show cause, 
on Friday next, the 24th March instant, at ten o'clock a.m., 
why an attachment should not be awarded against him for con- 
tempt of this court, in having disrespectfully wrested from the 
clerk aforesaid an original order of the honorable the judge of 
this court, for the issuing of a writ of habeas corpus, when 
issued and served, in having imprisoned the honorable the 
judge of this court, and for other contempts, as stated by the 
witnesses." 

Jackson immediately obeyed the summons. He is 
pictured usually as a haughty, irascible, undisciplined 
man, who respected little but his own will, yet in this 
instance he showed that he possessed other more ad- 
mirable qualities. He was the savior of New Orleans, 
the victor of the most remarkable battle of his time, a 
man whose authority had been absolutely unquestioned ; 
who had acted as he believed — and as I for one believe — 

46 



LAWYER 

with abundant justification ; who was being subjected 
to a petty personal persecution for an official action 
which the circumstances rendered necessary. No doubt 
he could have dismissed Judge Hall's summons with 
contempt. There was no power in Louisiana or in the 
southern part of the United States to have brought him 
to that court had he been unwilling to go. The soldiers 
were devoted to him, and so were the citizens. Yet he 
went without hesitation. Eaton thus describes the 
scene : 

" On that day General Jackson appeared in court, at- 
tended by a prodigious concourse of excited people. He 
wore the dress of a private citizen. Undiscovered 
amidst the crowd, he had nearly reached the bar, when, 
being perceived, the room instantly rang with the shouts 
of a thousand voices. Raising himself on a bench, and 
moving his hand to procure silence, a pause ensued. He 
then addressed himself to the crowd ; told them of the 
duty due to the public authorities; for that any im- 
propriety of theirs would be imputed to him, and urged, 
if they had any regard for him, that they would, on 
the present occasion, forbear those feelings and expres- 
sion of opinion. Silence being restored, the judge rose 
from his seat, and remarking that it was impossible nor 
safe, to transact business at such a moment and under 
such threatening circumstances, directed the marshal to 
adjourn the court. The general immediately interfered 
and requested that it might not be done. ' There is no 
danger here; there shall be none — the same arm that 
protected from outrage this city, against the invaders of 
the country, will shield and protect this court or perish 
in the effort.' 

'* Tranquillity was restored and the court proceeded to 
business. The district attorney had prepared, and now 
presented, a file of nineteen questions to be answered 
by the prisoner. ' Did you not arrest Louaillier ?' ' Did 

47 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

you not arrest the judge of this court?' ' Did you not 
say a variety of disrespectful things of the judge ?' * Did 
you not seize the writ of habeas corpus?' These nine- 
teen interrogations the general utterly refused to answer, 
to listen to, or receive. He told the court that in the 
paper previously presented by his counsel he had ex- 
plained fully the reasons that had influenced his conduct. 
That paper had been rejected without a hearing. He 
could add nothing to that paper. ' Under the circum- 
stances,' said he, ' I appear before you to receive the 
sentence of the court, having nothing further in my 
defence to offer.' 

" Whereupon Judge Hall pronounced the judgment 
of the court. It is recorded in the words following : 

"'On this day appeared in person Major-General Andrew 
Jackson, and, being duly informed by the court that an attach- 
ment had issued against him for the purpose of bringing him 
into court, and the district-attorney having filed interroga- 
tories, the court informed General Jackson that they would be 
tendered to him for the purpose of answering thereto. The 
said General Jackson refused to receive them, or to make any 
answer to the said interrogatories. Whereupon the court pro- 
ceeded to pronounce judgment, which was, that Major-General 
Andrew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars to the 
United States.' " 

The fine was paid then and there. 

Few things are more creditable to Jackson than his 
action in this connection. It is interesting to note that 
the fine was afterwards refunded to the general by the 
United States government. Thus his original course 
was approved by the authorities. The whole incident 
was a lucky one for Judge Hall, for it rescued his name 
from an oblivion from which nothing else in his career 
would have saved him. 

Once again in his life Jackson faced a writ of habeas 
corpus and refused to obey it. When he was made 
governor of Florida and after the cession of that terri- 

48 



LAWYER 

tory to the United States, he came into a collision with 
Callava, the retiring Spanish governor. A woman, a 
mulattress, claimed to be one of the heirs of the estate 
of a man named Vidal who had left considerable 
property. She said she was unable to establish her 
claim because the Spanish governor, Callava, refused 
to allow her access to certain papers belonging to her 
which he retained in his possession. 

That was enough for Jackson. A woman — even a 
black one — in trouble appealed to him as no one else 
could. He sent Callava a peremptory demand for the 
papers. When the Spanish governor claimed that they 
were not his personal property, that he was simply the 
custodian of them and refused to give them up, Jackson 
actually clapped him in jail ! He put him in the local 
calaboose and then sent one of his aids to open the gov- 
ernor's boxes and get out the papers, which, by the way, 
utterly failed to substantiate the claims of the woman, 
for investigation disclosed the fact that so far from 
anything being due her from the Vidal estate, she was 
indebted thereto. 

Judge Elijius Fromentin, of Louisiana, an apostate 
French Roman Catholic priest, who had been ap- 
pointed United States judge of Florida, issued a writ 
of habeas corpus for Callava, to which Jackson paid no 
attention whatever. The action made a great stir at the 
time. Callava and the Spanish government carried the 
affair to Washington. Jackson was sustained in his 
disregard of the writ for the reason that Congress had 
only extended the revenue laws to the new territory, and 
the only law which obtained in other matters was the 
old Spanish law which did not provide for a writ of 
habeas corpus — a point to which Jackson had given no 
thought whatever, although it turned out so luckily in 
his favor. The Spanish government was soothed by a 
sort of apology — not tendered by Jackson ! — for the 
4 49 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

arrest of the former governor — who was released so 
soon as Jackson had examined the papers, by the way 
— and thus the matter ended. As usual, although he 
had behaved outrageously towards the unfortunate 
Spanish official, Jackson got off scot-free. 

Wherever Jackson went he managed to get into diffi- 
culties. If there was any fighting against the enemy to 
be done, he could work off his energy and temper in 
that direction, but failing that safety-valve, his pugnacity 
involved him in all sorts of trouble. He generally did 
the right thing in the wrong way, or if he did it in the 
right way, he would throw such color over his action or 
his words as to exasperate those who did not believe 
as he. 

He was once offered the mission to Mexico. He de- 
clined it, which was within his power, but he went 
further than that. He published a letter in the Mobile 
Register in which he stated his reasons for declining. 

" These reasons were a reflection on the administra- 
tion, because they showed cause why no mission ought 
to be sent. The letter was calculated to win capital out 
of the appointment at the expense of the administration 
which had made it." 

Monroe was his good friend and considered the pro- 
priety of appointing him minister to Russia. Before 
making out the appointment he consulted with Jefferson. 
Jefferson and Jackson were both Democrats, and the 
Democratic party, in accordance with its fluctuation of 
opinion, swore impartially by either or both — and still 
so swears ! — but no two men were ever so tempera- 
mentally, and I may add politically, diverse as Jackson 
and Jefferson. Jefferson responded to Monroe's in- 
quiry in the following vigorous and emphatic language, 
" Why, good God, he would breed you a quarrel before 
he had been there a month !" 

Jackson fully reciprocated Jefferson's poor opinion of 

50 



LAWYER 

him. Senator Allen says : " Then he had always dis- 
liked Jefferson from the first, from the time when he 
(Jackson) went to Congress for Tennessee in 1796. He 
said he saw but little of Jefferson then, but got better 
acquainted with him the next year, when he was in the 
Senate, with Jefferson as presiding officer. ' Officially,' 
said Jackson, ' he was all that could be wished, but in 
personal intercourse he always left upon you the im- 
pression of want of candor, sincerity, and fidelity. He 
could not conceal his timidity. He was much more sen- 
sitive to Federalist criticism than to that of his own 
party. He seemed to think he owned his party anyhow, 
and his ambition seemed to be to win over the Federals. 
I really believe,' exclaimed Jackson, * that he seriously 
cherished the foolish hope that he might sometime be 
elected President without opposition, as Washington had 
been !' " 

Notwithstanding this, Jefferson on one occasion pre- 
sided at a banquet to do honor to Jackson, after his 
military fame had become so great, and toasted him 
in the most handsome and magnanimous manner. Jef- 
ferson was an old man at the time, however, and per- 
haps the mellowness of age made him more charitable 
than he would have been in earlier life. 

Jackson must have had in his bearing a great deal of 
the dignity and impressiveness we like to associate with 
the bench if the following testimony from Senator Ben- 
ton can be accepted. " The first time that I saw General 
Jackson was at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1790 — he on 
the bench, a judge of the then Supreme Court, and I 
a youth of seventeen, back in the crowd. He was then 
a remarkable man, and had his ascendancy over all 
who apprehended him, not the effect of his high judi- 
cial station, nor of the senatorial rank which he had held 
and resigned ; nor of military exploits, for he had not 
then been to war; but the effect of personal qualities, 

51 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

cordial and graceful manners, hospitable temper, eleva- 
tion of mind, undaunted spirit, generosity, and perfect 
integrity. In charging the jury in the impending case, 
he committed a slight solecism in language which grated 
on my ear and lodged in my memory without derogating 
in the least from the respect which he inspired, and 
without awakening the least suspicion that I was ever to 
be engaged in smoothing his diction." 

By the way, in 1808 Benton was fined one dollar for 
swearing in open court, which shows that the forensic 
manner of the time was not quite what it should have \ 
been, at least in the case of so accomplished a man as 
the great senator from Missouri. J 



52 



Ill 

PLANTER^ STOREKEEPER, AND SPORTSMAN 

Like many men of action, Jackson's fondest desire 
was for a retired, quiet life on his plantation, especially 
after the close of his military career. That desire was 
rarely realized. He was a rich man for his day, per- 
haps the richest man in Tennessee, and, other things 
being equal, could have ordered his life according to 
his fancy. In the Hermitage he had one of the finest 
plantations in the State or out of it. Although various 
things embarrassed him somewhat after his retirement 
from the Presidency and compelled him to borrow 
money and pledge his crops, his circumstances were 
easy and he never suffered from lack of means. His 
generosity was unbounded to all who had any claim 
upon him. Fortune and the demands of his countrymen 
never permitted him to enjoy his rural life for any 
extended period of time. He was generally in office of 
some sort which necessitated his absence from Nashville, 
near which his home was situated. He was not only 
a prosperous planter, but a successful merchant as well. 
He associated himself at various times with different 
partners and dealt in general merchandise. 

Sparks, in his " Memories of Fifty Years," charges 
Jackson with having been in early life a dealer in slaves. 
His remarks on this charge are rather naive, since he 
accompanies them with many controverting statements 
and with very little establishing testimony. Whom are 
we to believe if not the affidavits of Jackson's friends, 
who strenuously denied the charge? Yet I suppose 
there may be some ground of truth for it. Jackson may 

53 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

have sold slaves that had come into his possession in 
various ways, as other planters had done from time to 
time, but that he was a slave-dealer in the recognized 
sense of the word is not true. In the first place, the 
universal testimony is that no man was ever kinder to 
his slaves than Jackson. The relation between them 
and him was that of a patriarchal type, which was not 
infrequent in the South and which constituted the best 
defence of slavery that could be made. Master and 
slaves at the Hermitage were devoted to one another. 
Fierce, haughty, irascible as he sometimes was, Jackson 
was always kind to the poor and dependent. 

" Everybody told us," writes Parton, " that General 
Jackson's slaves were treated with the greatest hu- 
manity, and several persons assured us that it would 
not surprise them if in a short time their master, who 
already had so many claims on the gratitude of his 
fellow-citizens, should attempt to augment it still more 
by giving an example of gradual emancipation to Ten- 
nessee, which would be the more easily accomplished, 
as there are in this State but seventy-nine thousand 
slaves in a population of four hundred and twenty-three 
thousand, and from the public mind becoming more in- 
clined than formerly to the abolition of slavery." 

Before he built the Hermitage, which was a mansion 
for those days, and is still a spacious and commodious 
residence, Jackson and his wife lived in log cabins, the 
capacity of which was limited and the facilities for enter- 
tainment meagre, yet the hospitality of the general and 
his wife was unbounded. Thus Parton : 

" In an establishment so restricted, General Jackson 
and his good-hearted wife continued to dispense a most 
generous hospitality. A lady of Nashville tells me that 
she has often been at the Hermitage in those simple old 
times, when there was in each of the four available 
rooms not a guest merely, but a family, while the young 

54 



PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN 

men and solitary travellers who chanced to drop in dis- 
posed themselves on the piazza, or any other shelter 
about the house. ' Put me down in your book,' said 
one of General Jackson's oldest neighbors, ' that the 
general was the prince of hospitality; not because he 
entertained a great many people, but because the poor, 
belated pedlar was as welcome as the President of the 
United States, and made so much at his ease that he felt 
as though he had got home.' " 

" The general used in those years to ride in a carriage 
drawn by four handsome iron-gray horses, attended by 
servants in blue livery with brass buttons, glazed hats, 
and silver bands. ' A very big man, sir,' remarked one 
of the aged waiters of the City Hotel of Nashville. ' We 
had many big men, sir, in Nashville at that time, but 
General Jackson was the biggest man of them all. I 
knew the general, sir ; but he always had so many people 
around him when he came to town that it was not often 
I could get a chance to say anything to him. He didn't 
used to put up at our house. No, sir; the old Nash- 
ville Inn was General Jackson's house. He was a 
mighty quick man, sir; used to step around lively.' 
Thus, Washington, for thirty-five years waiter in the 
City Hotel." 

The views of the old waiter are interesting and accu- 
rate. According to Bernard Shaw, waiters are men of 
much more acumen than those who simply are fed — 
fancy! Jackson was a very great man and a marvel- 
lously active one, yet he was never an early riser when 
at home. It was his custom then to breakfast between 
eight and nine — a fashionable enough hour now, but 
very late in those days. 

Originally he had been what Parton describes as " an 
impetuous eater, fond of a liberal table and accustomed 
to take freely and largely of whatever good things were 
before him. He was one of these lonp-. thin men who 

55 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

ply a vigorous knife and fork all their days and never 
grow fat." Illness, brought about by his campaigning 
and fighting, caused him to grow constantly more care- 
ful and abstemious in his diet as he grew older. After 
dinner he and his wife were accustomed to sit by the 
fire, both taking a few leisurely and dignified pulls at 
their long reed tobacco-pipes. 

" For a week," writes Aaron Burr, who certainly 
knew the outward marks of good-breeding and refine- 
ment as well as any man on earth, " I have been 
lounging at the house of General Jackson, once a lawyer, 
after a judge, now a planter; a man of intelligence, and 
one of those prompt, frank, ardent souls whom I love 
to meet." 

The poor were as welcome as the rich. It must not 
be inferred that Jackson loved the poor any more than 
he did the rich, or znce versa, but he was the first of 
the Presidents of the United States who was really 
Democratic in practice as well as in theory. He esti- 
mated a man by his mental and moral worth, not by his 
manners. Yet there was no man who has filled the 
Presidential chair who was more courtly in bearing, 
more distinguished in manner, or more genuinely filled 
the measure of high breeding than Andrew Jackson. 
Strange as it may seem to the casual who are attracted 
by such antitheses as " Jefferson simplicity" and " Jack- 
son vulgarity," there is no doubt that Jackson was as 
polished a gentleman as, let us say, Chester A. Arthur, 
for instance. The vulgarity charge in connection with 
Jackson is just about as true as the charge of sim- 
plicity in connection with Jefferson. 

As a storekeeper Jackson made money. He was the 
most honest of men. His credit was the highest in 
the land. When banks were unable to secure money 
Jackson could get it on his personal unsecured note from 
anybody who had it. When he first entered business 

S6 



PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN 

he sold a piece of land to a Philadelphia capitalist whose 
reputation was very high. Jackson took notes in pay- 
ment for his land, discounted them, and bought goods 
with the proceeds. The man who had given the notes 
failed entirely. Jackson found himself minus his land 
and liable for the amount of the notes. He paid every 
dollar of the obligation and by economy and shrewdness 
recouped his fortune. According to Parton : 

" Sometime in 1838 or 1839 ^ gentleman in Ten- 
nessee became involved and wanted money ; he had 
property and owed debts. His property was not avail- 
able just then, and off he posted to Boston, backed by 
the names of several of the best men in Tennessee. 
Money was tight, and Boston bankers looked closely at 
the names. ' Very good,' said they ; ' but — but — do you 
know General Jackson?' 'Certainly.' 'Could you get 
his endorsement ?' ' Yes, but it is not worth a tenth as 
much as either of those gentlemen whose names I offer 
you.' ' No matter : General Jackson has always pro- 
tected himself and his paper, and we'll let you have the 
money on the strength of his name.' In a few days 
the paper with his signature arrived. The moment these 
Boston bankers saw the tall A and long J of Andrew 
Jackson, our Tennessean said he could have raised a 
hundred thousand dollars upon the signature without 
the slightest difficulty." 

Several times he pledged his personal property to pay 
bills incurred in military movements for the State and 
for the United States. In every instance, so high was 
his credit, he had no difficulty in obtaining the money. 
As his property accumulated he gradually withdrew 
from mercantile business. " The tradition is," says 
Parton, " that, after some years of storekeeping, Jack- 
son sold out to Coffee, taking notes payable at long 
intervals in payment for his share ; that Coffee floun- 
dered on awhile by himself and lost all that he had in 

57 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the world; that, afterwards, Coffee gave up the busi- 
ness, resumed the occupation of surveying, prospered, 
and married a niece of Mrs. Jackson ; that, on the 
wedding-day, General Jackson did the handsome and 
dramatic thing — brought out Coffee's notes from his 
strong box, tore them in halves, and presented the 
pieces to the bride with a magnificent bow. Which 
latter incident has the merit of being entirely prob- 
able, for his generosity to the relatives of his wife was 
boundless." Thereafter he devoted himself to his 
plantation. 

Respecting General Jackson's mode of dealing, we 
have agreeable information. " A cool, shrewd man of 
business," remarked Dr. Felix Robertson, a venerated 
citizen of Nashville (who was the first boy born in Nash- 
ville and who remembered Jackson since 1800). ''He 
knew the value of an article. He knew his own mind. 
Hence, he was prompt and decided. No chaffering, no 
bargaining. ' I will give or take so much ; if you will 
trade, say so, and have done with it ; if not, let it alone.' 
A man of soundest judgment, utterly honest, naturally 
honest ; would beggar himself to pay a debt, and did 
so ; could not be comfortable if he thought he had 
wronged anyone. He was swift to make up his mind, 
yet was rarely wrong ; but whether wrong or right, hard 
to be shaken. Still, if convinced that he was in the 
wrong, no man so prompt to acknowledge and atone. 
He was a bank hater from an early day. Paper money 
was an abomination to him, because he regarded it in 
the light of a promise to pay that was almost certain, 
sooner or later, to be broken. For his own part, law 
or no law, he would pay what he owed; he would do 
what he said he would." 

Jackson was not only a farmer, but a breeder of fine 
horses as well. Next to his books on military tactics 
those on horses were his favorite studv. He did much 

58 



PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN 

by importing blooded sires and carefully breeding them 
to produce that high quality which the horses of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee have never lost. 

Being a horseman, he was naturally a sportsman. He 
entered his horses freely in every race and meet which 
took place in his vicinity and generally won. The 
ostensible cause of his quarrel with Dickinson was a 
horse-race. He was fond of every kind of sport preva- 
lent in that day. As a boy, while a law student at Salis- 
bury, one of his contemporaries writes : " Andrew Jack- 
son was the most roaring, rollicking, game-cocking, 
horse-racing, card-playing, mischievous fellow, that ever 
lived in Salisbury." Add to this such expressions as 
these: " he did not trouble the law-books much;" " he 
was more in the stable than in the office ;" " he was the 
head of all the rowdies hereabouts." And the following 
discreditable pranks throws a peculiar light on the man- 
ners and customs of the free and easy period : 

" The dancing-school resolved to give a Christmas 
ball, and Andrew Jackson was appointed to serve as one 
of the managers thereof. There were living at that time 
in Salisbury two women of ill-repute, a mother and 
daughter, Molly and Rachel Wood — women notoriously 
dissolute — a by-word in the county of Rowan. Jack- 
son, who was excessively fond of a practical joke, sent 
these two women tickets of admission to the ball, ' to 
see what would come of it,' as he said. On the even- 
ing of the ball, lo ! the women presented themselves, 
flaunting in all the colors of the rainbow. Some con- 
fusion ensued. The dancing was suspended. The 
ladies withdrew to one side of the room, half giggling, 
half offended. Molly and Rachel were soon led out and 
the ball went on as before. In the course of the even- 
ing, when it came out that Jackson had sent them mvita- 
tions, the ladies took him to task, upon which he humbly 
apologized, declaring that it was merely a piece of fun, 

59 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

and that he scarcely supposed the women would have 
the face to make their appearance; and if they did, he 
thought the ladies would take it as a joke." The ladies 
forgave him more easily than some modern readers of 
the story will, yet this, it must be remembered, took 
place when Jackson was still little more than a boy. 

Parton says that " Jackson played cards, fought cocks, 
ran horses, threw the ' long bullet' (a cannon-ball slung 
in a strap and thrown as a trial of strength), carried off 
gates, moved outhouses to remote fields, and occasionally 
indulged in a downright drunken debauch. But he was 
not licentious nor particularly quarrelsome." Except 
for the " debauch," which is disputed by some authori- 
ties, these practices were those that usually obtained 
among the young men of the time and some of them 
were harmless enough. 

According to Parton, during his sojourn in Charles- 
ton the following incident occurred : " He had strolled 
one evening down the street, and was carried into a 
place where some persons were amusing themselves at 
a game of dice, and much betting was in progress. He 
was challenged for a game by a person present, by 
whom a proposal was made to stake two hundred 
dollars against a fine horse on which Jackson had 
come to Charleston. After some deliberation he ac- 
cepted the challenge. Fortune was on his side ; the 
wager was won and paid. He forthwith departed, 
settled his bill next morning, and returned to his 
home. ' My calculation,' said he, speaking of this 
little incident, ' was that, if a loser in the game, I would 
give the landlord my saddle and bridle, as far as they 
would go towards the payment of his bill, ask a credit 
for the balance, and walk away from the city ; but being 
successful, I had new spirits infused into me, left the 
table, and from that moment to the present time I have 
never thrown dice for a wager.' " 

60 



PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN 

This personal testimony may be depended upon abso- 
lutely. Whatever else he might have been, Jackson was 
the most truthful of men ; he scorned a lie and hated a 
liar. Mistaken he might be, his remembrance at fault 
possibly, but wilfully deceiving, never. Such a state- 
ment as that quoted is impeachable. 

" Nashville increased very rapidly both in numbers 
and wealth after the new century began," writes the 
virtuous and voluminous Parton. " It became a gay 
and somewhat dissipated place. Billiards, for example, 
were played to such excess that the game was sup- 
pressed by art of the legislature. The two annual races 
were the two great days of the year. Cards were played 
wherever two men found themselves together with 
nothing to do. Betting in all its varieties was carried on 
continually. Cock-fights were not infrequent. The 
whiskey bottle — could that be wanting ? 

" In all these sports — the innocent, the less innocent, 
and the very bad, Andrew Jackson was an occasional 
participant. He played billiards and cards, and both for 
money. He ran horses and bet upon the horses of 
others. He was occasionally hilarious over his whiskey 
or his wine when he came to Nashville on Saturdays, 
At the cock-pit no man more eager than he." 

There were gentlemen of the first respectability living 
at Nashville in Parton's day who remembered seeing 
him often at the cock-pit in the public square adjoining 
the old Nashville Inn, cheering on his favorite birds 
with loudest vociferation. " ' Hurrah ! my Dominica ! 
Ten dollars on my Dominica !' or ' Hurrah ! my Berna- 
dotte ! Twenty dollars on my Bemadotte ! Who'll take 
me up? Well done, my Bernadotte ! My Bernadotte 
for ever.' " 

Colonel Avery thus relates : " On the third of July, 
1809, I rode from Rutherford Court-House to Nash- 
ville. I saw there the general in a character new to me. 

61 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

He had made a main of cocks with Patton Anderson, 
to be fought on the Fourth for six hundred and forty 
acres of land. Whatever General Jackson did was the 
fashion. His influence over young men was unbounded. 
Cock-fighting was, accordingly, the order of the day. 
I passed ox-carts and wagons loaded with chickens. 
They were arriving by boats, too, from up and down 
the Cumberland. General Jackson was on the main, but 
the fighting by amateurs continued. On the third after- 
noon of the fighting, I think, when I went to the pit 
with George W. Campbell, a chicken of the General's, 
after being cut down, revived, and, by a *lucky stroke, 
killed his antagonist. Upon this I heard Jackson say to 
Campbell : 

" ' There is the greatest emblem of bravery on earth. 
Bonaparte is not braver!' 

" They were drinking quantities of mint- julep. I re- 
mained at the pit long enough to see large sums of 
money and several horses change hands. I suppose it 
was ennui, or want of excitement, made him do it. 
I never heard of him fighting chickens before or after 
this occasion, though he may have done it." 

And another contemporary exclaimed when it was 
proposed to nominate him for the Presidency : " What ! 
Jackson up for President! Jackson! Andreiv Jackson! 
The Jackson that used to live in Salisbury ? Why, when 
he was here he was such a rake that my husband would 
not bring him into the house. It is true, he might have 
taken him out to the stable to weigh horses for a race, 
and might drink a glass of whiskey with him there. 
Well, if Andrew Jackson can be President, anybody 
can!" Which shows how mistaken sometimes is the 
contemporary judgment. 

Yet it is well established that after the War of 1812 
he was never seen at a cock-pit and very seldom at the 
race-track, although he never lost his love for horses. 

63 



PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN 

Sumner, who cannot be accused of partiality, writes: 
" Jackson was above every species of money vice ; he 
was chaste and domestic in his habits ; he was tem- 
perate in every way; he was not ambitious in the bad 
sense. Judge McNairy speaks of General Jackson as 
being less addicted to the vices and immoralities of 
youth than any young man with whom he was ac- 
quainted; that he never knew of his fighting cocks or 
gambling, and as for his being a libertine, as has been 
charged, the judge says he was distinctly the reverse 
of it. * The truth is, as everybody here well knows. Gen- 
eral Jackson never was fond of any kind of sport, nor 
did he indulge in any except occasionally for amusement, 
but horse-racing. This his friends are willing to admit, 
but even this he has quit for many years. I believe ever 
since the year 1810 or 181 1.' " 

I suppose the discrepancies in what has been recorded 
arise from the fact that the things Jackson may have 
enjoyed and delighted in during his youth, he gradually 
abandoned as he grew older ; at any rate, the testimony 
to his manly qualities in his mature years is abundant. 



63 



IV 

SOLDIER 

The military career of Andrew Jackson undoubtedly 
made him the most prominent figure in the history of 
the United States between Washington and Lincoln. 
The Creek War, the War of 1812, and the Seminole 
War afforded him opportunities for the display of 
talents, military and personal, which amounted to 
genius. The opening of the second decade of the nine- 
teenth century found him obscure and for national 
purposes unknown or unconsidered. Its close left him 
the dominant personality of his age. From that position 
which he attained he never derogated. He remained the 
greatest man of his times. The same qualities which 
made him great as a soldier distinguished him in his 
after life. The same defects which he exhibited as a 
soldier marred his subsequent career ; but in his life the 
good overbalanced the ill, and with the lapse of years the 
latter is well-nigh forgotten. 

In the popular understanding Jackson's fame as a 
soldier rests solely upon the Battle of New Orleans. 
That was a remarkable battle. We can safely go farther 
and say that it was a unique battle, such an one as had 
never happened before and certainly will never happen 
again. But it would have been a most remarkable 
thing if from half an hour of fierce fighting at long 
range in the Delta of the Mississippi had ensued the 
subsequent career of Andrew Jackson. It was the 
salient, the culminating, feature of a military education 
in the hard school of actual experience which fastened 
the popular attention upon him, and which, conse- 

64 




ANDREW JACKSON 

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl in the State Capitol, 
Nashville, Tenn. 



SOLDIER 

quently, has stood for all that went before. Yet it by 
no means represents Jackson's military career, nor was 
the famous battle of the eighth of January the most con- 
vincing demonstration of his ability as a soldier — quite 
the contrary. 

Jackson was elected major-general of militia in the 
State of Tennessee in 1801 at the age of thirty-four. 
His military experience prior to that time had been 
practically nil. He took part in an Indian expedition 
on a very small scale in the spring of 1792, when he 
commanded a small body of fifteen men pursuing some 
Indians who had ravaged Robertson's Station. One of 
his companions describes him as " bold, dashing, fear- 
less, and mad upon his enemies." Buell says that he 
was at that time a major of militia. No one else 
attributes that rank to him, and Buell qualifies his 
statement later on, by saying that prior to his appoint- 
ment as major-general he had enjoyed no military ex- 
perience whatsoever. Whether he was a titular major 
or not, the latter statement is indubitably correct. 

Jackson was elected by one vote. His principal com- 
petitor for the office of major-general was the famous 
John Sevier, the hero of a hundred fights, a veteran and 
approved soldier. It was an inexpressible humiliation 
to old John Sevier to be beaten by an unknown young 
man who had never set a squadron in the field, what- 
ever his courage and other qualities for command might 
be. The vote that elected Jackson was the deciding one 
of Governor Roane.* 

In after years the position of major-general of mili- 
tia was a subject for burlesque, and the gorgeously 
apparelled paper soldiers who filled the office were the 
butts of the wits of the time. It is dififerent to-day. A 

* It is interesting to speculate upon the consequences to this 
country of a change in that one vote ! 
5 65 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

major-general of the National Guard is usually at least 
a respectable soldier with well-understood duties and a 
zealous desire to discharge them. He has the adminis- 
tration and the training of that force of the nation upon 
which, when we are compelled to use the final argument 
of republics as well as of kings, we must rely for de- 
fence. In Jackson's day the position was even more 
honorable and its duties more important and more oner- 
ous than they are now. Every man in Tennessee was 
more or less of a soldier. At least, it cannot be gain- 
said that he was of necessity a man-at-arms. The most 
precious possession of the pioneer was his rifle. By 
it he preserved his life, procured his food, and insured 
his liberty. Indians were always troublesome, and the 
new commonwealths to the west lived rifle in hand, 
finger on trigger. 

At the time of Jackson's election he was also chief- 
justice of Tennessee. Consequently he was not at first 
able to devote to the duties of the office that time and 
attention which he gave to them after he resigned from 
the bench in 1804, when his military career became his 
chief consideration. Yet from the beginning Jackson 
was a real and not a play soldier. The pomp and cir- 
cumstance of glorious war were conspicuous by their 
absence, but the true spirit of the soldier was always in 
evidence. His military career lasted until 1821. He 
was thus a soldier for a score of years, thirteen as major- 
general of militia, eight as major-general in the regular 
army of the United States. In these twenty years he 
participated as commander in no less than five distinct 
campaigns. He fought seven pitched battles, which 
were contested with bravery and skill on the part of his 
opponents and were carried out with equal bravery 
and skill by his command, battles which were marked 
by sanguinary ferocity and desperate courage. Many 
of them were small contests, like some of Washington's 

66 



SOLDIER 

in the Revolution, but they were, nevertheless, impor- 
tant. In addition to New Orleans, another one, Tallus- 
chatches, in which all the contestants on one side were 
killed to a man, was unique. Not only did Jackson fight 
these seven battles in person, but his lieutenants and the 
men under his command fought four more, of which 
he was the animating spirit, although not in actual com- 
mand on the field. 

He fought in three wars, the Creek, the War of 1812, 
and the Seminole. Two of his campaigns were practi- 
cally bloodless, one of no importance, the other of great 
value. Before he ever saw a British soldier he had 
demonstrated his splendid fighting ability. The Creek 
War was to Jackson what the Algerine War was to the 
American navy — a school. What he had learned in 
fighting that splendid race of Indians, than which no 
tribe that has ever roamed the forest glades has been 
more skilful, more determined, and more heroic, — I 
except not even the Iroquois, the Ottawa, the Nez Perce, 
the Sioux, or the Cheyenne, — enabled him to flesh his 
maiden sword and to gain that confidence begot of 
experience, — experience of victory, be it remembered, — 
which rendered the British an easy mark. 

" In 1814, after two years of warfare," Winfield 
Scott records in his autobiography that there were but 
two books of tactics (one written in French) in the 
entire army on the Niagara frontier; and officers and 
men were on such a dead level of ignorance that he 
had to spend a month drilling all the former, divided 
into squads, in the school of the soldier and school of 
the company. 

Jackson is popularly regarded as a rough-and-ready 
backwoods soldier who knew how to fight and little 
else. Scott is justly considered as a most highly edu- 
cated and accompHshed captain. Yet in Jackson's 
library at the Hermitage " the most thumbed books," 

67 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

said Mr. Blair, " were a translation of French army 
regulations and military tactics, two or three English 
books on similar subjects, histories of the campaigns 
of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, and several pam- 
phlets concerning certain campaigns of the Revolution." 
These books had evidently been studied with care, no 
mean preparation for an American soldier of that day. 
It may also be mentioned that many of Jackson's friends 
were old Revolutionary veterans, some of whom had 
enjoyed the benefit of Baron von Steuben's instructions 
in the school of a soldier. Some of them had learned 
tactics under Greene and Morgan and strategy under 
Washington. Therefore we are not justified in the in- 
ference that the troops Jackson led were mere untrained, 
unorganized mobs, who were herded in one direction or 
the other much like cattle, whose only redeeming virtue 
was ability to shoot straight to the mark. This, however, 
coupled with a courage that will not quail, is no mean 
groundwork on which to build successful campaigning. 

It is probable that Jackson and the man who most 
nearly approaches him in native military ability during 
the war, William Henry Harrison, who also acquired 
his fame west of the Alleghenies, were quite as accom- 
plished soldiers in the refinements of the art of war as 
Winfield Scott or Jacob Brown, who were the only 
conspicuous examples of ability produced by the sea- 
board States. 

It is no part of my task to recount the history of 
Jackson's campaigns. This has been done in extenso 
with great skill by many biographers, old and new. 
Reference has been made to some of the works, and 
further reference will be made to others, where the 
student of military affairs may find explicit information 
in detail. I shall only strive to show what kind of a 
soldier Jackson was by discussing his characteristics 
and peculiarities as exhibited in his campaigns. 

68 



SOLDIER 

Generally speaking, three things go to make a com- 
mander — strategy, tactics, and courage. Strategy deals 
with the movements preliminary to action — battle, that 
is ; tactics with the conduct of the force after the battle 
is joined. Everybody but the coward knows what 
courage is — perhaps the coward knows it better than 
anybody else, by exclusion. There are also many other 
things of less importance which go to make up the 
soldier and which contribute to make up the commander. 
I shall first consider Jackson as a captain rather than as 
a soldier. 

He had little or no opportunity for the display of 
grand strategy. In but two of his five campaigns did 
he meet with resistance stout enough to develop or 
render necessary any strategic concepts — the Creek War 
and the New Orleans campaign. The Creeks opposed 
to him mustered at least two thousand fighting men — 
" Red Sticks," so called from a little baton they carried 
as a sign of affiliation and to distinguish them from 
friendly Creeks. 

These Indians were no mean antagonists for any 
man. They had attained to a higher degree of civili- 
zation than any of the fighting Indian tribes on the con- 
tinent, before or since. Many of them lived on planta- 
tions and owned slaves. They had much acreage under 
high cultivation. They lived in villages of comfortable 
log cabins. Their principal men were half-breeds. 
Many of them spoke and read English. They had a 
genius for warfare, and did not disdain pitched battles 
with the whites. They came out in the open and fought 
boldly. Their courage was beyond praise. They were 
not defeated and the war was not ended until they were 
literally exterminated. 

" They defeated the Americans," Pickett, in his " His- 
tory of Alabama," says, " at Burnt Corn * and com- 
pelled them to make a precipitate retreat. They reduced 

69 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Fort Mims * after a fight of five hours and exterminated 
its numerous inmates. They encountered the large 
force under Coffee at Talluschatches and fought till not 
one warrior was left, disdaining to beg for quarter. 
They opposed Jackson at Talladega, and, although sur- 
rounded by his army, poured out their fire and fled not 
till the ground was almost covered with their dead. 
They met Floyd at Autosse '^ and fought him obsti- 
nately, and again rallied and attacked him a few hours 
after the battle, when he was leading his army over 
Haydon's Hill. Against the well-trained army of Clai- 
borne they fought at the Holy Ground * with the fury 
of tigers, and then made good their retreat across the 
Alabama. At Emuckfau, three times did they charge 
upon Jackson, and when he retreated across the Coosa 
they sprang upon him, while crossing at Enotachopco, 
with the courage and impetuosity of lions. Two days 
afterwards a party under Weatherford rushed upon the 
unsuspecting Georgians at Calabee * threw the army 
into dismay and confusion, and stood their ground in a 
severe struggle until the superior force of General Floyd 
forced them to fly at daylight. Sixty days after this 
Jackson surrounded them at the Horseshoe, and after 
a sanguinary contest totally exterminated them, while 
not one of them begged for quarter. At length, 
wounded, starved, and beaten, hundreds fled to the 
swamps of Florida; others went to Pensacola, and, 
rallying under Colonel Nichols, attacked Fort Bowyer." 
A brilliant record for the red man! 

" Thus," adds the same author, " were the brave 
Creeks opposed by the combined armies of Georgia, 
Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory, together with 

* Jackson had nothing to do with the battles starred. The 
troops engaged there were not under his orders, nor parts of 
his command. 

70 



SOLDIER 

the Federal forces from the other States, besides numer- 
ous bands of bloody Choctaws and Chickasaws. Fresh 
volunteers and militia from month to month were 
brought against them, while no one came to their assist- 
ance save a few English officers, who led them to under- 
take enterprises beyond their ability to accomplish. And 
how long did they contend against the powerful forces 
allied against them ? From the twenty-seventh of July, 
1813, to the last of December, 1814. In every engage- 
ment with the Americans the force of the Creeks was 
greatly inferior in number, except at Burnt Corn and 
Fort Mims." 

MacMaster bears the following testimony to their 
civilization : 

" The hunting-grounds of the Creeks had once 
stretched across Georgia, but by treaties, first with 
Georgia and then with the United States, the bounds had 
been narrowed, till in 1800 they were the Tennessee 
River, the western half of Georgia, and the present 
State of Mississippi. Over them, as agent for the 
United States, presided at that time Benjamin Hawkins. 
He had been appointed in 1796, had labored unremit- 
tingly for their good, and had done much to give them 
what little civilization they possessed. Following out 
the policy of the Government, he had taught them how 
to plough and sow, raise crops, spin cotton, and had 
persuaded them to adopt a sort of national organization 
for the purpose of preserving peace and enforcing law. 
His success was not as great as could have been wished. 
Nevertheless, while they clung tenaciously to their old 
habits of hunting, they dwelt in villages and owned 
farms, cattle, slaves, and knew the use of the humbler 
implements of agriculture." 

To meet this united and determined foe Jackson had 
a constantly changing body of volunteers and militia, 
men who were enlisted for short terms and about whose 

71 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

term of service there was always a dispute. They were 
as unruly and as difficult to manage as any soldiers that 
ever wore out the life of a commander. Jackson at the 
beginning of the campaign rose from a sick-bed to take 
charge. Most of the time he carried his left arm in a 
sling from an open wound. He had two slugs in his 
shoulder, the result of his duel with the Bentons. 
During his service in the field he was also afflicted with 
dysentery so severely that the only position he could 
assume with any degree of comfort was to sit stride of 
a chair with his face upon his arms, which rested on 
the back of it. It is almost impossible to imagine his 
physical condition. He was thin to the point of emacia- 
tion. Even when his wound partially healed he was 
not able to wear the weight of the heavy epaulet of his 
rank upon his left shoulder. Nothing sustained him but 
his indomitable will. Armies might come and armies 
might go, but they could not alter his determination. As 
Parton well says : 

" The reader is, therefore, to banish from his imagina- 
tion the popular figure of a vigorous warrior galloping 
in the pride of his strength upon a fiery charger, and 
put in the place of it a slight, attenuated form, a yel- 
lowish, wrinkled face, the dark-blue eyes of which were 
the only features that told anything of the power and 
quality of the man. In great emergencies, it is true, 
his will was master, compelling his impaired body to 
execute all its resolves. But the reaction was terrible 
sometimes, days of agony and prostration following an 
hour of anxiety and exertion. He gradually learned, in 
some degree, to manage and control his disease. But 
all through the Creek War and the New Orleans cam- 
paign he was an acute sufferer, more fit for a sick- 
chamber than the forest bivouac or the field of battle. 
There were times, and critical times too, when it seemed 
impossible that he could go on. But, at the decisive 

72 



SOLDIER 

moment, he always rallied, and would do what the de- 
cisive moment demanded." 

He took the field on the seventh of October, 1813, and 
kept it amid the fluctuations of the troops until May of 
the following year, when he returned to Nashville, 
having completely blotted out the Creeks and terminated 
the war. Like all great soldiers, he attracted to him a 
body of heroic and splendid subordinates. Every one 
of them, almost, had gone back home during the course 
of the war at one time or another, many of them sent 
by Jackson on recruiting or other business for the 
army, but he himself stayed at the front. 

It may seem far-fetched, but as I view it, his position 
reminds me no^- a little of that of Washington in 1776- 
1777, when he w is struggling perhaps more desperately 
to keep his army together than to fight the British. Yet 
the individuals who composed Jackson's armies were 
men of extraordinarily high character. Testimony to 
that is abundant. Benton, who commanded one of the 
regiments on the abortive expedition to Natchez in 1812, 
thus refers to them : 

" They represented almost every family of note in 
Middle and West Tennessee. Forty years have passed 
since I saw them. But I see them plainer than then. 
The rolls of this Republic's honor are full of their names. 
They have become governors, legislators, jurists, minis- 
ters of the Gospel, great and successful planters, capi- 
talists, leaders of industry. They have helped to hew 
new States out of what was wilderness then. Their 
pioneer fathers and heroic mothers wrested the new 
West from savage hands. They defended it. Their 
own sons, but a year or two ago [Benton said this at a 
"Jackson Day" dinner, January 8, 1852] tore from 
the grasp of Spanish bigotry the fairest of our realms ! 
What splendid fellows they were ! Tall, straight, broad- 
shouldered, deep-chested young men, hardly one of them 

73 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

over thirty. We read of Sparta, Rome, and Macedon. 
Let us grant that all their men were truly what their 
classic epics say of them. Then let us wait for the 
coming of some new Homer to sing the Volunteers of 
Tennessee." 

These qualities, however, are not inconsistent with 
shocking — on occasion — insubordination, which in 
several instances became downright mutiny ! I have 
observed that a loosely drawn contract and agreement 
admitting of two constructions is as provocative of 
quarrel and misunderstanding and as deleterious in its 
results as a half-truth, which, indeed, it greatly resem- 
bles ; and it is a fact that Jackson invariably acted under 
one construction of law when his dire need warranted 
him in assuming, and the volunteers and militia in- 
variably tried to act on another, differing as widely as 
was possible from their general. Another cause of the 
refractory conduct of the volunteers was due to the com- 
missariat, which was wretchedly managed. The men 
were always hungry and ill provided. " If," as has 
been pithily observed by the greatest of soldiers, " an 
army fights, or moves, on its belly," it also obeys on 
the same useful member ! The highest evidence that 
the most modem army of the day presents of its effi- 
ciency is exhibited by the Japanese medical and sub- 
sistence departments. 

These Tennesseans were half starved time and time 
again. Whenever there was any fighting to do they 
were all right, but at other times they were generally 
all wrong. That they were not fighting all the time with 
the enemy rather than wrangling among themselves was 
not the fault of their commander. Ammunition and 
food he was always struggling for. Roosevelt gives, 
perhaps, a juster estimate of these soldiers and their 
captain than Benton did : 

" Accustomed to the most lawless freedom, and to 

74 



SOLDIER 

giving free rein to the full violence of their passions, 
defiant of discipline and impatient of the slightest re- 
straint, caring little for God and nothing for man, they 
v^ere soldiers who, under an ordinary commander, would 
have been fully as dangerous to themselves and their 
leaders as to their foes. But Andrew Jackson was of 
all men the one best fitted to manage such troops. Even 
their fierce natures quailed before the ungovernable fury 
of a spirit greater than their own ; and their sullen, 
stubborn wills were bent at last before his unyielding 
temper and iron hand. Moreover, he was one of them- 
selves; he typified their passions and prejudices, their 
faults and their virtues; he shared their hardships as 
if he had been a common private, and, in turn, he always 
made them partakers of his triumphs. They admired his 
personal prowess with pistol and rifle, his unswerving 
loyalty to his friends, and the relentless and unceasing 
war that he waged alike on the foes of himself and his 
country. As a result, they loved and feared him as 
few generals have ever been loved or feared; they 
obeyed him unhesitatingly ; they followed his lead with- 
out flinching or murmuring, and they ever made good 
on the field of battle the promise their courage held out 
to his judgment." 

The picture of their final submissiveness is a little 
highly colored, perhaps, but true enough in the main. 
No less than four times in the Creek War did the troops 
under him break out in open mutiny. In quelling these 
successive disturbances and in bringing the subordinate 
troops to terms, Jackson showed his qualities as, per- 
haps, in no other way. The militia and volunteers were 
dififerent bodies. When the volunteers, conceiving with 
some show of right that their term of service was over, 
broke out in open revolt and attempted to march home- 
ward, they found their path barred by the militia, who, 
with loaded guns, waited only the order of the indomi- 

75 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

table commander to fire upon their comrades. The 
volunteers were quite equal to dealing with the militia 
alone, but not with the militia plus Jackson ! That 
mutiny was nipped in the bud. 

The next day, however, in obedience to a singular 
but understandable influence, the militia reflected that 
if they had not acted as they had in obedience to their 
commander, the volunteers would have been on their 
way home and that they had good color for following 
them. This prospect so inflamed their imagination that 
they determined to break away and go home in their 
turn. But Jackson was equal to the emergency. He 
now paraded the volunteers in front of the militia — 
and those who were threatened the day before were only 
too glad to measure out some of the medicine they 
had received to their former enemies ! It was a huge 
joke, and Jackson displayed great adroitness in his 
manipulation of his antagonistic units. He was fond of 
a joke of that kind and greatly enjoyed it. 

Later on the volunteers, now fully persuaded that 
their term of enlistment had expired, made another at- 
tempt to abandon the field. Jackson had been reen- 
forced, and the volunteers found the rest of his army 
commanding their position, every rifle charged, cannon 
loaded, artillerists with smoking matches in their hands, 
and the general on horseback, a stern and ruthless figure 
which they could not face. Having mastered them thor- 
oughly, bent them to his will, Jackson let them go with 
a stinging rebuke, under which they writhed and against 
which they vainly protested for the rest of their natural 
lives. 

At one period of the campaign, when the troops were 
actually starving, " Jackson, with the utmost cheerful- 
ness of temper, repaired to the bullock-pen, and of the 
oflFal there thrown away provided for himself and stafl: 
what he was pleased to call and reallv seemed to think 

76 



SOLDIER 

a very comfortable repast. Tripes, however, hastily 
provided in a camp, without bread or seasoning, can only 
be palatable to an appetite very high whetted ; yet this 
constituted for several days the only diet at headquar- 
ters, during which time the general seemed entirely 
satisfied with his fare." 

Their subsequent condition, however, was more than 
mere flesh and blood could bear, and even the iron 
Jackson, who lived on acorns when the tripe gave out, — 
he surrendered his own private stores to the sick and 
wounded after the first battle and thus afterwards had 
no other subsistence than the meanest private, — declared 
that if supplies did not reach them in two days the army 
could march home, with the distinct understanding that 
if provisions were met on the way it should come back. 
Provisions were met on-tke, way. The army refreshed 
itself and deliberately proceeded'^on its march homeward. 
Jackson galloped in front of it, barred its way, sprang 
from his horse, rested his rifle across the saddle, — he 
only had the use of one arm, — and in a blazing fury 
threatened to kill the first man that made a step. Parton 
thus describes the afifair : 

" I can fancy the scene — Jackson in advance of Cof- 
fee's men, his grizzled hair bristling up from his fore- 
head, his face as red as fire, his eyes sparkling and 
flashing; roaring out with the voice of a Stentor and 
the energy of Andrew Jackson, ' By the immaculate 
God! I'll blow the damned villains to eternity if they 
advance another step !' " 

On one occasion, when deserted by everybody, he 
lifted up his hands and exclaimed, " If only two men 
will remain with me, I will never abandon this post!" 
Captain John Gordon instantly exclaimed, " You 
have one, General. Let us see if we cannot find an- 
other." By hard persuasion one hundred and nine men 
agreed to remain with him. 

77 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Jackson was keenly aware of the value of discipline, 
the necessity of it in any military enterprise, especially 
in such a force as he commanded, as the following pre- i 
liminary orders will show : 

" We will commence the campaign by an inviolable attention 
to discipline and subordination. Without a strict observance J 
of these, victory must ever be uncertain, and ought hardly be ' 
exulted in, even when gained. To what but the entire disre- 
gard of order and subordination are we to ascribe the disasters 
which have attended our arms in the North during the present 
war? How glorious will it be to remove the blots which have 
tarnished the fair character bequeathed us by the fathers of 
the Revolution ! The bosom of your general is full of hope. 
He knows the ardor which animates you, and already exults in 
the triumph which your strict observance of discipline and 
good order will render certain." 

For the police of his camp he announced the following 
order : 

" The chain of sentinels will be marked, and the sentries 
posted, precisely at ten o'clock to-day. 

" No sutler will be suffered to sell spirituous liquors to any 
soldier, without permission in writing from a commissioned 
officer, under the penalties prescribed by the rules and articles 
of war. 

" No citizen will be permitted to pass the chain of sentinels, 
after retreat beat in the evening, until reveille in the morning. 
Drunkenness, the bane of all orderly encampments, is positively 
forbidden, both in officers and privates ; officers under the pen- 
alty of immediate arrest ; and privates, of being placed under 
guard, there to remain until liberated by a court-martial. 

" At reveille beat, all officers and soldiers are to appear on 
parade, with their arms and accoutrements in proper order. 

" On parade, silence, the duty of a soldier, is positively com- 
manded. 

" No officer or soldier is to sleep out of camp, but by per- 
mission obtained." 

This, which is preserved by Eaton, does not bear out 
the " undisciplined-mob" theory ! 

78 



SOLDIER 

Perhaps in nothing is his iron determination shown 
so clearly as in the execution of Private John Wood, a 
mutinous soldier. Wood had been tried and convicted 
of mutiny on the field, — practically in the face of the 
enemy, — and in spite of every plea, against every ap- 
peal, Jackson ordered the sentence to be carried out. 
He was accused of inhumanity and reckless disregard 
of life for this action. This is what he says about it 
himself. It affords a complete vindication of his course 
and adequately reveals the character of the man. For 
all his fierce temper, his blazing energy, his frightful 
language, on occasion, as we shall see later, he could be 
as tender as a woman. 

"... Nothing else could be so grievous to me as the 
necessity of putting to death one of my own soldiers. It 
was with great difficulty and after two sleepless nights 
of consideration that I was able to decide upon inflict- 
ing the full sentence of the court-martial. At first my 
inclination was to commute the sentence to flogging, 
branding with the letter D, and drumming out of camp. 

" But I had to reflect that the camp had been torn to 
pieces by mutiny once before, and now, unless sternly 
checked at the start, it might, and doubtless would, 
again spread and become general. The volunteers and 
militia had got the idea that a citizen of the State, tem- 
porarily under arms, could not be subjected to capital 
punishment under military law. Unfortunately, my mis- 
taken leniency with the former mutineers had given 
grounds for such a belief. I had heard the reproach 
that it was necessary for me to use one-half of my 
army to keep the other half in order — and, really, there 
had been too much truth in that saying. 

" This was what determined me to sign the order for 
Wood's execution. It was witnessed by the whole army 
— all but one man. That one was myself. I not only 
did not attend, but rode far enough from camp in the 

79 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

other direction to be out of hearing when the fatal shots 
were fired. . . . 

" It certainly was the best. But it was a fearful 
ordeal to me. I hope it may never be repeated." 

In exactly the same spirit just after New Orleans he 
ordered the execution of six other Tennessee militiamen 
who had been convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 
death by a duly constituted court-martial. It is a poor 
commander who cannot master his own men, and unless 
he can enforce obedience at home he can never hope 
to win victories abroad. The circumstance is, of course, 
deplorable, and, as the war was practically over when 
these six men were executed, Jackson might have ad- 
mitted them to mercy. But legally and morally he 
cannot be censured for the execution, even though we 
wish it had not taken place. The lesson was a salutary 
one, and Jackson had suffered enough from rebellion 
and insubordination to make him resolute and deter- 
mined to put such things down always and everywhere 
with a strong hand — not the least of his great charac- 
teristics as a captain, and the lesson was not lost for 
the future, either. Volunteers, militia, and other irregu- 
lars need such teaching. 

Jackson did not believe that the only good Indian was 
a dead Indian, and the Indians themselves respected and 
admired him, even those who fought against him, as 
they respected few others. Major Lewis bears testi- 
mony to the fact that " the general was always in- 
finitely more patient and conciliatory in dealing with 
Indians than with white men, and he would good- 
naturedly listen to their long harangues and humor their 
petty caprices to the limit when, had they been white 
men, their speeches might have been cut short and 
their caprices dashed aside by a peremptory order." 

His remarks about the treaty which closed the Creek 
War exhibit his feelings : 

80 



SOLDIER 

" Yes, yes ; it is good — as far as it goes. But none 
of these treaties can last more than a score of years. 
The white race will by that time demand access to 
every acre east of the river (meaning the Mississippi), 
and they will have it, too. Nothing can stop them. I 
feel sorry for the Indians. If the English would let 
them alone they wouldn't make much trouble. They 
can lay all their misfortunes at the door of England." 

After one of the engagements the story goes that " a 
young warrior who was brought in badly wounded to 
the surgeons said, as they were dressing his wounds, 
' Cure him, kill him again.' The general, who was 
standing by, assured him that he had no such intention. 
He recovered and was afterwards taken home by Jack- 
son to Tennessee, where he learned a trade, married a 
colored woman, and established himself in business. 
Jackson's course towards a little Indian baby captured 
in the field will be referred to later. 

In general, in spite of their mutinies, the soldiers 
loved him. He understood them, sympathized with 
them, encouraged them, and, above all, constantly led 
them to victory! A soldier will forgive anything to a 
successful commander — a fighter. To a restless and 
untiring energy he united sleepless vigilance and genu- 
ine military genius. Prompt to attack whenever the 
chance offered itself, seizing with ever-ready grasp the 
slightest vantage ground, and never giving up a foot 
of earth that he could keep, he yet had the patience 
to play a defensive game when it so suited him, and 
with consummate skill he always followed out the 
scheme of warfare that was best adapted to his wild 
soldiery." 

The Creek War made no little stir in America and 

the story of Jackson's brilliant campaign even penetrated 

to England, where years after the Duke of Wellington 

was pleased to express himself in terms of high appro- 

6 8i 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

bation concerning it. That great soldier told Major 
Donelson at a dinner-table in London when the latter 
was on his way to Germany, to which country he had 
been appointed American minister, " that he had care- 
fully read the history of General Jackson's Creek cam- 
paign; and if he had never done anything else, this 
would have made Jackson one of the great generals of 
the world." * 

A brief word about Jackson's battle tactics is here in 
order. In the first place, until the final day at New 
Orleans, he was always on the offensive except at the 
battle of Enotachopco. Before the Creeks realized the 
proximity of his army he ordered Coffee to strike them 
at Talluschatches. Excepting the arrival of a reen- 
forcement, he left his sick and wounded at Fort Strother 
to go to the rescue of friendly Creeks beleaguered at 
Talladega. On the march he heard that the reenforce- 
ments had been diverted. A weaker commander would 
have retired to his base at once. Jackson pushed on, 
realizing that the best protection to his rear would be a 
vigorous offence against the enemy. 

His fighting tactics were exceedingly effective. At 
Talladega he made a feint with a small force, which he 
promptly withdrew as the Creeks charged. The Indians 
found themselves outflanked as they came on, and when 
they retreated they were attacked in the rear by Coffee's 
cavalry and surrounded. At Emuckfau Jackson built 
fires some distance in front of his line, gradually with- 
drawing his men from the vicinity of them. When the 
savages sought to rush his camp at night, he coolly 
waited until they came between his men and the firelight 



* I put this testimony in italics to emphasize it that it may 
not escape the attention of those who think Jackson's success 
rests upon a combination of good luck, reckless audacity, and 
the blundering of his enemies. 

82 



SOLDIER 

and shot them down in easy view. At Enotachopco, 
where circumstances forced him to return to his base of 
suppHes, he conducted a most masterly retreat in the 
presence of a superior offensive force. On this strenu- 
ous day one company became disorganized; Jackson's 
personal efforts on the field saved the day. 

The Creeks had not dreamed that any army could 
penetrate the difficult country in which they made their 
home. They considered themselves secure in their 
wooded mountain fastnesses. " So rapid were Jackson's 
marches," says Eaton, " that not unfrequently was he 
in the neighborhood of the enemy before they had re- 
ceived any intelligence of his approach ; in addition to 
this was attached to him the quality that few generals 
ever possessed in a higher degree, of inspiring firm- 
ness in his ranks and making the timid brave. An 
entire confidence of success, a full assurance of 
victory, and a fearlessness and disregard of danger, 
were the feelings displayed by himself in all difficult 
situations, and those feelings he possessed the happy 
faculty of inspiring to others and of diffusing through 
his army." 

The battle of Tohopeka, which broke the Creek power 
forever, was a tactical masterpiece.* The Creeks had 
fortified the neck of Horse Shoe Bend, enclosed by a 
deep and unfordable river. Jackson deployed his main 
body before the breastwork and, engaging it with his 
artillery, made a demonstration in force to amuse the 
Indians while he sent Coffee to surround the Bend. 
Some of Coffee's friendly Creeks swam the river and, 
like Gulliver with the Blefuscan Navy, towed the canoes 
of the tribe across the stream. Coffee ferried his men 
across therein, set fire to the Indian village, advanced 

* For an account of this battle, see my book, " American 
Fights and Fighters Series — Border." 

83 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

to assail their rear, while Jackson converted his feint 
into a real attack and stormed the breastwork. The In- 
dians died fighting. It was all on a small scale, of 
course, but it could not have been better done. No ruse 
or stratagem seemed to escape the general and the com- 
mendation of the great Duke was fully warranted. 



84 



V 

SOLDIER (continued) 

Jackson's splendid campaigning won him an appoint- 
ment first as brigadier-general in the regular army, 
which, before it could be accepted, was changed to 
major-general, vice William Henry Harrison, resigned. 
As major-general of regulars Jackson promptly invaded 
Spanish territory without warrant of law or specific 
authority from his superiors. Yet Pensacola had been 
used by the British openly as a base from which to 
incite the Indians to war on the frontiers. In fact, the 
promises of England — which she did not keep, by the 
way — were at the back of the Creek uprising. Spain 
could not — or, better, she would not — preserve her neu- 
trality, and Jackson high-handedly marched to Pensa- 
cola, seized it, and then expelled the British commander 
of the small British garrison at Fort Barrancas and 
occupied the work. 

He said to Eaton in after years that " if I had received 
any hint that such a course would have been winked at 
by the government, it would have been in my power to 
have captured the British shipping in the bay. I would 
have marched at once against Barrancas and carried it, 
and thus prevented any escape ; but, acting on my own 
responsibility against a neutral power, it became essen- 
tial for me to proceed with more caution than my judg- 
ment or wishes approved, and consequently important 
advantages were lost which might have been secured." 

While there was no legal justification for this course 
there was abundant moral justification. Jackson's view- 

85 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

point regarding the assumption of responsibility in an 
emergency may be learned from a quotation from his 
famous letter to Governor Blount, of Tennessee, regard- 
ing the calling out of an additional force without warrant 
of law : " Believe me, my valued friend, there are times 
when it is highly criminal to shrink from responsibility, 
or scruple about the exercise of our powers. There are 
times when we must disregard punctilious etiquette and 
think only of serving our country." These were prin- 
ciples he invariably acted upon wnth a sincerity and 
devotion beyond question. Jackson may have been, 
and it must be admitted he sometimes was, mistaken, 
but no one questions the sincerity of his patriotism or 
his profound conviction that his action was for the 
best. Indeed, his ends were almost always those that 
should be pursued by a devoted lover of his country, 
although his methods would frequently not bear scru- 
tiny. With him the end invariably justified the means, 
— he made it do so, — and that is not a safe maxim even 
in the case of noble ends. 

In the two Florida campaigns Jackson was right in 
principle, as he usually was, but wrong in method, as 
was frequently the case. Yet perhaps no diplomatic 
representations would have been effective, at least in 
their long-drawn-out course they would not have 
brought about any immediate adjustment of the in- 
tolerable situation which, so long as the then present 
conditions existed, placed the peace and safety of the 
frontier in constant jeopardy. The judgment of his 
contemporaries sustained him in his action and with 
substantial propriety. 

The Pensacola campaign was succeeded by that of 
New Orleans. The problem of the defence of New 
Orleans was a grave one. General Wilkinson, who, with 
all his ignominious meanness, was a regular veteran 
who had been trained in a good school, wrote that " to 

86 



SOLDIER 

defend New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi 
against a dominant naval force and six thousand veteran 
troops, rank and file, from the West India station, the 
following force is indispensable: Four of the heaviest 
national vessels ; forty gunboats to mount eighteen and 
twenty-four pounders ; six steamboats for transporta- 
tion, each to hold four hundred men and a month's 
provisions ; four stout radeaux, each to mount two 
twenty-four pounders ; ten thousand regular troops ; 
four thousand five hundred militia." 

The force at Jackson's disposal when he reached the 
city on the first of December, 1814, was practically 
nothing. He organized the most nondescript and heter- 
ogeneous army that ever fought under the American 
flag. There were United States regulars, Creole militia, 
New Orleans volunteers, including men of every sta- 
tion and class and nationality, — French, Spanish, Ger- 
man, Irish, and so on, — free men of color, pirates from 
Barataria, of the famous band of the La Fittes; dra- 
goons from Mississippi, Choctaws from Alabama, and 
sailors from everywhere ; but the bone and sinew of 
his force were the riflemen of Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky under such officers as Coffee, Carroll, and 
Adair. 

Every language under the sun was spoken in that 
camp. Jackson knew none but English, but he knew 
that well enough and was sufficiently expressive and 
explicit in it to make his men understand him by in- 
stinct, as it were. Besides, he had the help of Edward 
Livingstone, one of the most accomplished men of his 
time, and a numerous and efficient staff of regulars and 
volunteers. It is no small part of Jackson's fame that 
he welded together and made sufficient for his purpose 
and obedient to his will such a motley crowd as that. 
It was most unpromising material, but he made of it an 
army — even the British admitted that later, 

87 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

To oppose this motley array the British brought to 
New Orleans the flower of Wellington's army. They 
had distinguished themselves in the famous campaigns 
on the Spanish Peninsula against the marshals of Na- 
poleon. Napier thus aptly characterized them : 

" For what Alexander's Macedonians were at Arbela, 
Hannibal's Africans at Cannae, Caesar's Romans at 
Pharsalia, Napoleon's Guards at Austerlitz — such were 
Wellington's British soldiers at this period. . . . Six 
years of uninterrupted success had engrafted on their 
natural strength and fierceness a confidence that made 
them invincible." 

General Jackson, however, was not daunted by any 
consideration of the troops he had to face. Witness this 
quotation from Buell : " In 1832 a work called ' The 
Military Memoirs of the Duke of Wellington' was pub- 
lished in London, and a copy found its way into the 
hands of Mr. Blair, then editor of the Globe. Mr. Blair 
showed it to the President — or gave it to him to read — 
and called his attention particularly to a remark ascribed 
to the duke concerning the quality of his army in Spain. 
The remark was : ' That was the best army ever seen. 
It was an army that could go anywhere and do any- 
thing." Mr. Blair suggested that the troops composing 
the army — or some of them — on a famous occasion sig- 
nally and disastrously failed to make good the duke's 
boast. ' Well, Blair,' said Jackson after a moment's 
deliberation, ' I never pretended that I had an army that 
" could go anywhere and do anything," but at New 
Orleans I had a lot of fellers that could fight more ways 
and kill more times than any other fellers on the face of 
the earth !' " 

As an observing Southern woman put it, " All these 
Tennesseans are mild and gentle, except when they are 
excited, which is hard to do ; but when they are once 
raised, it is victory or death." 

88 



SOLDIER 

Next to the Tennesseans the most important factor in 
Jackson's operations was the naval force under Master 
Commandant Daniel T. Patterson, seconded by Lieu- 
tenants Henly and Thomas Ap-Catesby Jones. The 
utmost harmony existed between Jackson and Patterson. 
This naval officer's services are not estimated at their 
true value by historians, by the way, and he is not 
justly appreciated by our people. And the way Jackson 
made use of his sea power was masterly. 

While reorganizing his forces and hurrying Coffee 
and Carroll — whom he had rather mistakenly sent up 
the river — with their riflemen to the front, Jackson put 
the city under martial law, a situation unknown to the 
Constitution but eminently congenial to a man of Jack- 
son's stamp and decidedly necessary under the then 
conditions. " Born and brought up among the lawless 
characters of the frontier, and knowing well how to deal 
with them, Jackson was able to establish and preserve 
the strictest martial law in the city without in the least 
quelling the spirit of the citizens." 

New Orleans was the only campaign in which oppor- 
tunity for strategy was given Jackson. At English Bend 
he placed a force in Fort Philip to command the river ; 
another one was placed in Fort St. John at Chef-Men- 
teur at the entrance to Lake Ponchartrain. Thus he 
covered his right and left flanks as well as he could, a 
check to the British advance from either direction. 
And then he strove to meet the situation with furious 
energy. 

To Colonel Overton, commanding Fort Philip, he 
gave positive orders that he must hold the fort while a 
man remained alive to point a gun. The officer obeyed 
orders to the letter and gallantly repulsed a formidable 
attack from the river later in the campaign. To General 
Coffee he wrote : " You must not sleep until you reach 
me, or arrive within striking distance. Your accustomed 

89 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

activity is looked for. Innumerable defiles present them- 
selves where your services and riflemen will be all-im- 
portant. An opportunity is at hand to reap for yourself 
and brigade the approbation of your country." To 
General Winchester, who commanded at Mobile : " The 
enemy will attempt, through Pass Huron, to reach you ; 
watch, nor suffer yourself to be surprised; haste, and | 
throw sufficient supplies into Fort Bowyer and guard 
vigilantly the communication from Fort Jackson, lest it 
be destroyed. Mobile Point must be supported and 
defended at every hazard. The enemy has given us a 
large coast to guard; but I trust, with the smiles of 
Heaven, to be able to meet and defeat him at every 
point he may venture his foot upon the land." He sent 
a steamboat to General Carroll to hasten his descent of 
the river, and a despatch concluding, " I am resolved, 
feeble as my force is, to assail the enemy, on his first 
landing, and perish sooner than that he shall reach the 
city." 

Part of his naval force he placed on Lake Borgne, 
the rest on the Mississippi below the city. Thus he 
covered both forts from the water as well as he could. 
The British landed at Bayou Bienvenu, having captured 
the gunboats on Lake Borgne after a desperate resist- 
ance on the part of the Americans. Roughly speaking, 
the British landed midway between the two forts which 
masked Jackson's flanks. Three distinct battles were 
fought before the determination of the campaign. One 
on the twenty-third of December, one on the first of 
January, and one on the eighth of January. There were, 
besides, numerous skirmishes and smaller affairs hotly 
contested with bloody results. The British had no 
sooner landed and got within striking distance of the 
city than Jackson attacked them. The attack was a 
strategic conception of the first magnitude. The British 
had imagined that they would have little difficulty in 

90 



SOLDIER 

seizing the city. " I shall eat my Christmas dinner in 
New Orleans," * said Admiral Cochrane on the day of 
the landing. The remark was repeated by a prisoner to \ 
General Jackson, who said : " Perhaps so, but I shall i 
have the honor of presiding at that dinner." They ad- 
vanced as far as the Villere plantation and halted. In- 
stead of waiting their advance Jackson in person led 
every soldier he had at hand to attack them. Coffee's 
riflemen had joined him, fortunately, and his numbers 
were about equal to those of the British. 

The attack was delivered at dusk and the battle raged | 
far into the night. The losses on both sides were about 
equal. The British remained in possession of the field, 
the Americans withdrew. Technically it was a drawn 
battle, actually it was the cause of the subsequent British 
defeat. Jackson's genius as a soldier is best exhibited 
by this battle, which I have ventured to call the Battle 
of Villere, for it paralyzed the British advance. They 
could not conceive that anything less than confidence 
begot of overwhelming superiority in numbers could 
have induced Jackson with his raw troops to attack 
veteran soldiery in the open. The British halted then 
and there until the bulk of their army could be brought 
up and they could, as they supposed, engage on more 
equal terms. 

John Van Buren, the brilliant attorney-general of 
New York, said, in an eulogy of Jackson delivered after 
the general died : " This battle saved New Orleans. It 
was, too, in the judgment of the military men, a mas- 
terly movement. The enemy till then had been un- 
molested ; they had reason to expect a friendly recep- 
tion ; the next day they would have advanced on 



* I have observed that similar boasts as to proposed festivi- 
ties have often be made by vi^ould-be conquerors— ^.g., Buller, 
Kuropatkin, etc. 

91 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

New Orleans. The night assault on the twenty-third 
checked and drove them back — it taught them respect 
for the American arms, and led them to overestimate 
the number of our forces. It came upon them at night, 
in a strange land, unexpected, and when but a part of 
their forces were landed. It carried confusion and 
panic into their ranks, and dispelled the terror of their 
invincibility; and although the brilliant victory of the 
first of January, and the total and memorable rout of 
the eighth, finally expelled the invaders, they but com- 
pleted and perfected what the master-stroke of the 
twenty-third had so well begun. The forces of the 
British vastly exceeded those of the attacking party; 

■; and this fact strongly illustrates the natural and intui- 
tive skill of General Jackson in the art of war. It was 

r the maxim of Napoleon, the great master of this science, 
that an inferior force should never wait to be attacked ; 
for, by advancing, they either fall with all their strength 
on a single point when they are not expected, or meet 
the opposing columns ^n the advance, when bravery 
gives the victory — or, in his own nervous language, 
'C'est line affaire de tetes de colonnes oil la hravoure 
seule decide tout.' " 

Jackson's dashing tactics in this battle were on a level 
with his brilliant strategy. He used the " Carolina," an 
armed schooner, with consummate skill. She dropped 
down the river, anchored opposite the British camp, and 
deliberately opened fire at practically pointblank range, 
her broadsides of grape doing much execution. Mean- 
while, Jackson had brought every available soldier down 
the river. Leading over half his force in person, he fell 
upon the British left, driving them from the shelter of 
the levee. Cofifee, who was to do the same thing on 
the right, lost his way in the swamps, was delayed by 
their impassable condition, and instead of falling on the 
flank struck the British in front. If Coffee had been 

92 



SOLDIER 

able to carry out his part of the programme — and no 
blame is attached to him for his failure — it is possible 
that the British detachment might have been put to utter 
rout. 

Jackson's withdrawal from the field was another evi- 
dence of good tactics. He realized that at the present 
stage of the battle nothing could be gained by prolong- 
insf it. He divined that the blow he had dealt the 
British would paralyze their offensive efforts for the 
time being, so he brought off his force in good order and 
put the men to work behind the old Rodriguez Canal, 
which he had selected as his first line of defence. The 
badly mauled British did not dare attack him. He had 
ample leisure to build a strong fortification of logs filled 
in with earth and mud of the Delta on the north side 
of the canal, which extended from the river to the 
swamp; the right resting on the river, protected by an 
outwork, while the impassable swamp effectually cov- 
ered the left. 

With the " Carolina" and the " Louisiana," a small 
corvette, he kept up a constant and galling fire on the 
British camp. He also cut the levee below his position 
in the hope of flooding out the enemy, but the river was 
low and the only result was the filling of the bayous, thus 
rendering the British boat transportation easier. The 
British complained of the fire he kept up on the picket 
line. The practice is, I believe, deprecated in so-called 
civilized warfare, but conditions here were different and 
Jackson allowed his backwoodsmen and Indians to make 
the picket line as unhealthy for the redcoats as they 
could. These episodes are trifling, but they certainly 
impaired the nerve and undermined the morale of the 
British army. Instead of a triumphant march to New 
Orleans, they found themselves impotently subjected to 
a most galling rifle and artillery fire. On his redoubt 
Jackson had assembled every piece of artillery he could 

93 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

gather together — truly a miscellaneous collection of 
cannon ; indeed, quite like his army. 

After a time the British succeeded in sinking the 
valiant little " Carolina" and driving the " Louisiana" to 
a point where she could no longer annoy them. They 
then advanced their own artillery and signalized the 
opening of the New Year by a furious duel with great 
guns in which the honors were decidedly with the 
American cannoneers. Pakenham, Wellington's brother- 
in-law, who had finally arrived and taken command, 
then decided upon a direct assault in force on the Ameri- 
can line. It was a foolish proceeding, it must be ad- 
mitted. Pakenham has been terribly censured for his 
course and Jackson's qualities as a general have been 
sneered at because Pakenham showed such bad judg- 
ment. It would have been easy, say the critics, for | 
Pakenham to cross the river, turn Jackson's entrench- 
ments, march up opposite the city, recross the river, 
force Jackson to fight a battle in the streets or abandon 
it. An interesting programme but not so simple as it 
seems, perhaps ! At any rate, it was possible for 
Pakenham to flank Jackson out of his strong defensive 
position, although whether the rest of the campaign 
would have proceeded as indicated is a question. But 
Pakenham made the not uncommon mistake of the 
British officer in America, from Braddock down, of 
despising his enemy. He did not dream of the possi- 
bility of a repulse. He knew nothing of the quality of 
the American riflemen. Had he survived the battle he 
would have been the most surprised man on earth. 
" Who would have thought it ?" muttered poor Brad- 
dock in his death agonies, and the words might well 
have been Pakenham's. 

The river opposite Jackson's right had been hastily 
fortified and was held by a small, inefficient force under 
a thoroughly incapable commander. A detachment of 

94 



SOLDIER 

British under Colonel Thornton, the ablest English 
soldier present, apparently, had no difficulty in clearing 
these men out of their works at the point of the bayonet 
and seizing Patterson's water battery, made up of the 
guns which had been landed from the " Louisiana." 
Jackson's failure strongly to fortify and hold this point 
under a competent commander is the one military mis- 
take that he made. The omission, or failure, might have 
had most serious consequences. But one mistake in all , 
his fighting and campaigning does not damn him as a ( 
captain, and few generals there are who can show fewer 
blunders. 

The attack on the eighth of January resulted in an 
appalling slaughter of the British. The Americans 
lost eight killed and thirteen wounded. The British 
lost three thousand and twenty-six in killed and 
wounded, of whom about three thousand were struck by 
rifle bullets, the balance of casualties being due to artil- 
lery fire. The attack on the main redoubt was an abso- 
lute failure. None of the British touched the redoubt 
except a small party under Colonel Rennie on the ex- 
treme right, who were killed to a man as they mounted 
the parapet. The success across the river was negatived 
by the defeat on the east bank.* 

Of the four British generals in the battle, Paken- 
ham and Gibbs, the second in command, were killed ; 
Keane was severely wounded, while Lambert, who com- 
manded the reserve, which was not engaged, alone 
escaped. 

The British had had enough. They embarked in ships 
and sailed away on the seventeenth of January to cap- 
ture Fort Bowyer at Mobile Bay. The campaign was 
over. Mr. Charles Francis Adams has the following 

* For an account of the battle, see my book, " American 
Fights and Fighters Series — Revolutionary." 

95 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

lucid comment to make on the strategy of the cam- 
paign.* 

" Possibly it might by some now be argued that, had 
Pakenham thus weakened his force on the east side of 
the river by operating, in the way suggested, on New 
Orleans, and Jackson's flank and rear on the west side, 
a vigorous, fighting opponent, such as Jackson unques- 
tionably was, might have turned the tables on him 
for thus violating an elementary rule of warfare — the 
very rule, by the way, so dangerously ignored by Wash- 
ington at Brooklyn. Leaving his lines, and boldly 
taking the aggressive, Jackson, it will be argued, might 
have overwhelmed the British force in his front, thus 
cutting the column operating west of the river from the 
fleet and its base of supplies — in fact, destroying the ex- 
pedition. Not improbably Pakenham argued in this 
way ; if he did, however, he simply demonstrated his 
incompetence for high command. Failing to grasp the 
situation, he put a wrong estimate on its conditions. 
It is the part of a skilful commander to know when to 
secure results by making exceptions to even the most 
general and the soundest rules. Pakenham at New 
Orleans had under his command a force much larger 
— in fact, nearly double — that confronting him. While, 
moreover, his soldiers were veterans, the Americans 
were hardly more than raw recruits ; but, like the 
Boers of to-day, they had in them good material and 
were individually accustomed to handling rifles. As 
one of the best of Jackson's brigadiers, General Adair, 
afterwards expressed it, ' Our men were militia without 
discipline, and if once beaten, they could not be relied 
on again.' They were, in fact, of exactly the same tem- 
per and stuff as those who were stampeded by a volley 
and a shot at Bladensburg ; and the principle of military 
morale thus stated by General Adair was that learned by 

* From " Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers." By per- 
mission of Houghton, Mififlin Co. 

96 



SOLDIER 

Washington on Long Island. Troops of a certain class 
when once beaten cannot be relied on again. They are 
not seasoned soldiers. The force Pakenham had under 
his command before New Orleans was, on the other 
hand, composed of seasoned soldiers of the best class. 
In the open field, and on anything approaching equality 
of position, he had absolutely nothing to fear. He might 
safely provoke attack ; indeed, all he ought to have 
asked was to tempt Jackson out from behind his breast- 
works on almost any terms. So fully, moreover, did 
he realize this that he hesitated to divide his command, 
overestimating Jackson's numbers and aggressive ca- 
pacity. Had he done so, he would hardly have ventured 
to assail Jackson in front. On the contrary, Pakenham's 
trouble lay not in overestimating, but in underestimating 
his adversary. He failed to operate on what were cor- 
rect principles for the conditions which confronted him, 
not because he was afraid to do so, but because he did 
not grasp the situation. 

" In case, then, dividing his commnad, Pakenham had 
thrown one-half of it across the river to assail New 
Orleans in force, so turning Jackson's rear, and then 
with the other half hold his position on the east bank, 
keeping open his communications with the British fleet, 
the only possible way in which Jackson could have taken 
advantage of the situation would have been by leaving 
his lines and attacking." 

Even in spite of Pakenham's blundering it is not fair 
to take the credit from Jackson. In this connection 
further remarks from Mr. Adams are pertinent: 

" Jackson on this occasion evinced one of the highest 
and rarest attributes of a great commander; he read 
correctly the mind of his opponent — divined his course 
of action. The British commander, not wholly imper- 
vious to reason, had planned a diversion to the west 
bank of the river, with a view to enfilading Jackson's 
lines, and so aiding the proposed assault in front. As 
7 97 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

this movement assumed shape it naturally caused Jack- 
son much anxiety. All depended on its magnitude. If 
it was the operation in chief of the British army, New 
Orleans could hardly be saved. Enfiladed, and threat- 
ened in his rear, Jackson must fall back. If, however, 
it was only a diversion in favor of a main assault 
planned on his front, the movement across the river 
might be checked, or prove immaterial. As the thing 
developed during the night preceding the battle, Com- 
modore Patterson, who commanded the American naval 
contingent on the river, became alarmed, and hurried 
a despatch across to Jackson, advising him of what was 
taking place and begging immediate reenforcement. At 
one o'clock in the morning the messenger roused Jack- 
son from sleep, stating his errand. Jackson listened 
to the despatch, and at once said : ' Hurry back and 
tell Commodore Patterson that he is mistaken. The 
main attack will be on this side, and I have no men 
to spare. General Morgan must maintain his position 
at all hazards.' To use a vernacular but expressive 
term, Jackson had ' sized' Pakenham correctly — the 
British commander could be depended upon not to do 
what a true insight would have dictated and the occa- 
sion called for. He would not throw the main body 
of his army across the river and move on his objective 
point by a practically undefended road, merely holding 
his enemy in check on the east bank. Had he done so, 
he would have acted in disregard of that first principle 
both in tactics and strategy which forbids the division 
of a force in presence of an enemy in such a way that 
the two parts are not in position to support each other ; 
but, not the less for that, he would have taken New 
Orleans. An attack in front was, on the contrary, in 
accordance with British military traditions and the re- 
cent experience of Bladensburg. He acted, accordingly, 
as Jackson was satisfied he would act. In his main 
assault he sacrificed his army and lost his own life, sus- 
taining an almost unparalleled defeat ; while his partial 
movement across the river was completely successful, 

98 



SOLDIER 

so far as it was pressed, opening wide the road to New 
Orleans. A mere diversion, or auxiliary operation, it 
was not persisted in, the principal attack having failed. 
Jackson would have had to attack on their own ground 
had he found himself compelled on the eighth of Janu- 
ary to leave his lines and assume the aggressive, as the 
only possible alternative to a precipitate retreat and the 
abandonment of New Orleans. Certainly, that day An- 
drew Jackson was under great obligations to Edward 
Pakenham." 

There is a disposition in spite of this to attribute 
Jackson's success to luck and British bad tactics and 
stupidity. Roosevelt covers this point most admirably.* 
I quote his illuminating remarks together with the notes 
that accompany them : 

" Jackson, adopting that mode of warfare which best 
suited the ground he was on and the troops he had 
under him, forced the enemy always to fight him where 
he was strongest, and confined himself strictly to the 
pure defensive — a system condemned by most European 
authorities,! but which has at times succeeded to admira- 
tion in America, as witness Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, 
Kenesaw Mountain, and Franklin. Moreover, it must 
be remembered that Jackson's success was in no wise 
owing either to chance or to the errors of his adversary.^ 



* From " The Naval War of 1812." By permission of G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. 

t Thus Napier says (vol. v, page 25) : " Soult fared as most 
generals will who seek by extensive lines to supply the want 
of numbers or of hardiness in the troops. Against rude com- 
manders and undisciplined soldiers, lines may avail; seldom 
against accomplished commanders, never when the assailants 
are the better soldiers." And again (page 150), "Offensive 
operations must be on the basis of a good defensive system." 

t The reverse has been stated again and again with very great 
injustice, not only by the British, but even by American writers 
(as, e.g., Professor W. G. Sumner in his " Andrew Jackson as 

99 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

As far as fortune favored either side, it was that of the 
British ; * and Pakenham left nothing undone to accom- 
pHsh his aim, and made no movements that his experi- 
ence in European war did not justify his making. There 
is not reason for supposing that any other British gen- 
eral would have accomplished more or have fared better 
than he did.f Of course, Jackson owed much to the 
nature of the ground on which he fought ; but the 
opportunities it afforded would have been useless in i 
the hands of any general less ready, hardy, and skilful/ 
than Old Hickory." 

a Public Man," Boston, 1882). The climax of absurdity is 
reached by Major McDougal, who says (as quoted by Cole 
in his " Memoirs of British Generals," ii, page 364) : " Sir 
Edward Pakenham fell, not after an utter and disastrous de- 
feat, but at the very moment when the arms of victory were 
extended towards him," and by James, who says (ii, 338), 
" The premature fall of a British general saved an American 
city." These assertions are just on a par with those made by 
American writers, that only the fall of Lawrence prevented the 
" Chesapeake" from capturing the " Shannon." 

British writers have always attributed the defeat largely to 
the fact that the Forty-fourth Regiment, which was to have led 
the attack with fascines and ladders, did not act well. I doubt 
if this had any eflfect on the result. Some few of the men with 
ladders did reach the ditch, but they were shot down at once, 
and their fate would have been shared by others who had been 
with them ; the bulk of the column was ever able to advance 
through the fire up to the breastwork, and all the ladders and 
fascines in Christendom would not have helped it. There will 
always be innumerable excuses ofifered for any defeat ; but on 
this occasion the truth is simply that the British regulars 
found they could not advance in the open against a fire more 
deadly than they had before encountered. 

* E.g., the unexpected frost made the swamps firm for them 
to advance through ; ' the river being so low when the levee 
was cut, the bayous were filled, instead of the British being 
drowned out ; the " Carolina" was only blown up because the 
wind happened to fail her, bad weather delayed the advance 
of arms and re-enforcements, etc., etc. 

t " He was the next man to look to after Wellington." (Cod- 
rington, i, 339.) 

100 



SOLDIER 

Of course, neither Jackson nor Pakenham followed 
the recognized rules of strategy. One succeeded, one 
failed. To disregard conventionalities is a dangerous 
procedure. On the part of a great man it frequently 
brings success. On the part of a commonplace man it 
usually results in failure. Jackson and Pakenham were 
cases in point. 

Adams says again, " The really great military com- 
mander, as in the case of Napoleon in his earlier days, 
effects his results quite as much by ignoring all recog- 
nized rules and principles as by acting in obedience to 
them. At New Orleans, Jackson had no right to suc- 
ceed; Pakenham had no excuse for failure. The last 
brought defeat on his army, and lost his own life, while 
proceeding in this way of tradition and in obedience to 
accepted principles of strategy ; the former achieved 
a brilliant success by taking risks from which any rea- 
sonably cautious commander would have recoiled." 

But it takes greatness to attempt that from which 
" any reasonably cautious commander would have re- 
coiled," and it is an evidence of genius to succeed in 
such an endeavor. 

Nor did Jackson blindly stake everything on his posi- 
tion. He had two different lines of entrenchments be- 
tween the Rodriguez Canal and New Orleans to which 
he could have retired without difficulty should it have 
been necessary. Nor did the capture of New Orleans 
appear to him as decisive of the campaign, for he was 
quite prepared to destroy the city absolutely rather than 
let it fall into the hands of the British. He knew what 
the great strategists of modern times have sought to 
inculcate, that fleets and armies, not places, are the 
legitimate objects of campaigns, and that so long as he 
had an army in being there could be no effectual con- 
quest of Louisiana. The British might possess them- 
selves of the ruins of New Orleans, but so long as Jack- 

lOI 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON • 

son held his army intact they would have to follow him 
and fight him sooner or later. 

" It was not Marmont," he said to Eaton, " that be- 
trayed the Emperor, it was Paris. He should have done 
with Paris what the Russians did with Moscow — burnt 
it, sir, burnt it to the ground, and thrown himself on the 
country for support. So / would have done, and my 
country would have sustained me in it." And many 
years after the battle General Jackson told the same 
man that " if he had been driven from his position, he 
would have burned the city and retreated up the river, 
fighting over every inch of the ground." 

During the course of the battle Jackson, who was ill 
and found great difficulty in remaining on horseback, 
walked up and down the line on foot. Walker in his 
" Campaign of New Orleans" preserves this anecdote 
of his demeanor: 

" Jackson's first glance when he reached the line was 
in the direction of Humphrey's battery. There stood 
his right arm of the artillery, dressed in his usual plain 
attire, smoking that eternal cigar, coolly levelling his 
guns and directing his men. 

Ah !' exclaimed the general, ' all is right. Hum- 
phrey is at his post, and will return their compliments 
presently.' 

" Then, accompanied by his aide, he walked up and 
down to the left, stopping at each battery to inspect its 
condition, and waving his cap to the men as they gave 
him three cheers, he observed to the soldiers, — 

Don't mind these rockets, they are mere toys to 
amuse the children.' " 

Satisfied that the right would take care of itself, and \ 
realizing that the main attack was upon his left, he ' 
stationed himself there with his staff. When the British 
charge spent itself unavailingly and the Highlanders, 

102 



SOLDIER 

who made the supreme effort, halted, reeled, and stag- 
gered back, there was a natural impulse along the 
American lines to leave the entrenchments and charge 
the British. The opportunity was tempting, yet Jackson 
had the good sense and nerve to refuse. As it is one 
of the few instances in which he was conspicuous for 
self-restraint it ought to be noted. He absolutely nega- 
tived the importunate plea of one of his officers for per- 
mission to deliver a countercharge. 

" My reason for refusing," he said afterwards to 
Eaton, " was that it might become necessary to sustain 
him, and thus a contest in the open field be brought on. 
The lives of my men were of value to their country 
and much too dear to their families to be hazarded 
where necessity did not require it ; but, above all, from 
the numerous dead and wounded stretched out on the 
field before me, I felt a confidence that the safety of 
the city was most probably attained, and hence that 
nothing calculated to reverse the good fortune w^e had 
met should be attempted." 

Buell relates the following incident of his treatment 
of an unauthorized movement on the part of a young 
subaltern, which, if it had not been checked, might have 
led to disaster,* 

" Young Robert Polk, ensign of his uncle's company, 
a curly-headed youth of nineteen or twenty, sprang upon 
the breastwork, and the bright blade of his Indian toma- 
hawk glittered above his bare head as he yelled : ' Come 
on, boys ! Follow me ! Let's charge 'em. Let's get 
among 'em !' 

" ' Down, sir, downT roared Jackson in the voice of a i 
mad bull. 'Back to your post!' , 

"Young Robert Polk jumped down ofif the parapet! 

" Jackson fumbled with his hands about his waist. 

* From " History of Andrew Jackson." By permission of 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 

103 



* <• 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

As if surprised, he found he had on no belt or side arms 
of any kind — only the cane in his hand. In a half- 
helpless sort of way, he turned to his aide-de-camp, 
' Kindly lend me your pistols for a moment, Captain.' 

" Captain Butler took two heavy rifled pistols from 
his belt and handed them to his chief. 

" ' Now,' said Jackson in a voice that no one ever 
forgot who heard it, and with a wicked glint in his great 
gray eyes, ' I'll shoot the first man who dares go over 
the works ! We must have order here!' 

" There was order." 

Incidentally this episode throws rather an interesting 
and curious light upon this supposed fire-eater, 
breathing blood and destruction, spitting out curses 
and anathemas. We are surprised to see him walking 
up and down the lines quietly in the midst of fierce 
battle with no other weapon than a cane and forced to 
borrow a pair of pistols from a staff offtcer in an 
emergency. This is a picture of him which artists who 
love to depict him on horseback, cocked hat, drawn 
sword, and so forth, do not seem to have realized and 
which is infinitely more dramatic and thrilling than their 
imaginings. 

As the British trumpets flared out the charge through 
the fog Major Butler, his aide, thus records the gen- 
eral's action : 

" ' That is their signal for advance, I believe,' he 
said. He then ordered all of us down off the parapet, 
but stayed there himself, and kept his long glass to his 
eye, sweeping the enemy's line with it from end to 
end. In a moment he ordered Adair and Carroll to pass 
word along the line for the men to be ready, to count 
the enemy's files down as closely as they could, and each 
look after his own file-man in their ranks ; also that they 
should not fire until told, and then to aim above the 
cross-belt plates." 

104 



SOLDIER 

Throughout the whole campaign he did not spare 
himself. Colyar writes : " The anxiety and excitement 
produced by the mighty object before him were such as 
overcame the demand of nature, and for four days and 
four nights he was without sleep and was constantly 
employed His line of defence being completed on the 
night of the twenty-seventh, he, for the first time since 
the arrival of the enemy, retired to rest and repose. 
Edward Livingstone, in careless, familiar conversation, 
used to say ' three days and three nights.' ' Nor during 
these days,' the same gentleman was accustomed to say, 
'did the general once sit at a table or take a regular 
meal. Food was brought to him in the field, which he 
would oftenest consume without dismounting.' When 
Mr. Livingstone, fearful of the consequences of such 
unremitting toil upon a constitution severely shattered, 
would remonstrate with him and implore him to take 
some repose, he would reply : ' No, sir ; there's no 
knowing when or where these rascals will attack. They 
shall not catch me unprepared. When we have driven 
the red-coated villains into the swamp, there will be 
time enough to sleep.' " As always he had gone to 
the front and had stayed there until the campaign was 
finally decided, sustained, as usual, by that indomitable 
will. 

The result of his campaign was amazing. As Parton 
puts it : " The victory occurred at a happy time. It 
finished the war in glory. It restored and inflamed the 
national self-love. And whoever does that in an emi- 
nent degree remains for ever dear to a nation — ^becomes 
its Wellington, its Jackson !" Henry Clay, one of the 
commissioners to treat for peace, thus summed up the 
effects of the British defeat; when the news of the 
victory reached him in Paris he said, " Now, I can go to 
England without mortification." 

But it was not until later years that its full signifi- 

105 



* h 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

cance was appreciated. Jackson himself had no mis- 
apprehensions about it, but few others appreciated it, 
and it has been preserved for a present day historian — 
Colonel Augustus C. Buell, whose discussion of the 
matter in his last book is one of the most illuminating 
and valuable contributions to our history — so to put it 
that even the unwilling may understand. The popular 
idea is that the Battle of New Orleans having been 
fought after peace was declared, was a perfectly useless 
slaughter of no value in determining the issue of the 
war; and save for the exploitation of our skill with the 
rifle, and the demonstration of ability of the backwood 
general and his soldiers, served no purpose whatsoever 
except that of ministering to our national vanity. For 
which petty end the terrible slaughter of the hapless 
British soldier cannot be justified by the most callous 
observer. 

These conclusions, which prevail widely to-day, are 
all wrong. So far from being a useless slaughter, the 
Battle of New Orleans was the most important and de- 
cisive fought on this continent between Yorktown and 
Gettysburg. Andrew Jackson contributed to the future 
of his country in a degree only surpassed by Washing- 
ton, who founded it, and Lincoln, who preserved it. 
For to Andrew Jackson is due the vital fact that the 
western boundary of the United States is the Pacific 
and not the Mississippi. 

This is quite sufficient to immortalize him, to win him 
a place among the highest of the benefactors and 
patriots of America. For this service we can forgive 
him much. For what would the country now be with 
Canada in possession of the Great West, with the red 
flag of England facing the stars and stripes on opposite 
banks of the Father of Waters? Buell has preserved 
this conversation which he heard from Governor Wil- 
liam Allen, of Ohio, who was a party to it: 

io6 



SOLDIER 

" Near the end of General Jackson's second adminis- 
tration, and shortly after the admission of Arkansas to 
the Union, I, being- Senator-elect from Ohio, went to 
Washington to take the seat on March 4th. 

" General Jackson — he always preferred to be called 
General rather than ^Ir. President, and so we always 
addressed him by his military title — General Jackson in- 
vited me to lunch with him. No sooner were we seated 
than he said, ' Mr. Allen, let us take a little drink to the 
new star in the flag — Arkansas !' This ceremony being 
duly observed the general said, ' Allen, if there had been 
disaster instead of victory at New Orleans, there never 
would have been a State of Arkansas.' 

" This, of course, interested me, and I asked, ' Why 
do you say that. General?' 

'•'Then he said, 'If Pakenham had taken New Or- 
leans, the British would have claimed that the treaty of 
Ghent, which had been signed fifteen days before the 
battle, provided for restoration of all territory, places, 
and possessions taken by either nation from the other 
during the war, with certain unimportant exceptions ? 

"■ ■' Yes, of course,' he replied. ' But the minutes of 
the conference at Ghent as kept by ^Mr. Gallatin, repre- 
sent the British commissioners as declaring in exact 
words : 

" ' '' We do not admit Bonaparte's construction of the 
la.v of nations. W^e can not accept it in relation to any 
subject-matter before us.'' 

" ' At that moment,' pursued General Jackson, ' none 
of our commissioners knew what the real meaning of 
these words was. W^hen they were uttered, the British 
commissioners knew that Pakenham's expedition had 
been decided on. Our commissioners did not know it. | 
Now, since I have been Chief ^Magistrate I have learned 
from diplomatic sources of the most unquestionable 
authority that the British ministry did not intend the 
treaty of Ghent to apply to the Louisiana Purchase at 
all. The whole corporation of them from 1803 to 181 5 
— Pitt, the Duke of Portland. Greenville, Perceval. Lord 

107 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Liverpool and Castlereagh — denied the legal right of 
Napoleon to sell Louisiana to us, and they held, there- 
fore, that we had no right to that territory. So you 
see, Allen, that the words of Mr. Goulburn on behalf 
of the British commissioners, which I have quoted to 
you from Albert Gallatin's minutes of the conference, 
had a far deeper significance than our commissioners 
could penetrate. Those words were meant to lay the 
foundation for a claim on the Louisiana Purchase en- 
tirely external to the provisions of the treaty of Ghent. 
And in that way the British government was signing a 
treaty with one hand while with the other behind its 
back it is despatching Pakenham's army to seize the 
fairest of our possessions. 

" * You can also see, my dear William,' said the old 
general, waxing warm (having once or twice more 
during the luncheon toasted the new star), ' you can also 
see what an awful mess such a situation would have 
been if the British programme had been carried out in 
full. But Providence willed it otherwise. All the 
tangled web that the cunning of English diplomats could 
weave around our unsuspecting commissioners at Ghent 
was torn to pieces and soaked with British blood in half 
an hour at New Orleans by the never missing rifles of 
my Tennessee and Kentucky pioneers. And that ended 
it. British diplomacy could do wonders, but it couldn't 
provide against such a contingency as that. The 
British commissioners could throw sand in the eyes of 
ours at Ghent, but they couldn't help the cold lead that 
my riflemen sprinkled in the face of their soldiers at 
New Orleans. Now, Allen, you have the whole story. 
Now you know why Arkansas was saved at New Or- 
leans. Let's take another little one.' " 

It is indubitably true that if the British had succeeded 
in defeating Jackson and seizing Louisiana they would 
have held it, treaty to the contrary notwithstanding. As 
Jackson said, the commissioners did not know the sig- 
nificance of Mr. Goulburn's words, " We do not admit 

io8 



SOLDIER 

Napoleon's construction of the law of nations. We 
cannot accept it in relation to any subject-matter before 
us." They all suspected an ulterior design, although 
they could not fathom it. Had Pakenham been suc- 
cessful, had Jackson failed, it is as clear as anything 
can be that we should have had to accept the Mississippi 
as the western boundary of the United States or else 
fight the British again for it. It is singular that it has 
been reserved for Mr. Buell, over sixty years after the 
battle — he first published the Allen interview in 1875 
and it did not attract the attention then that it did when 
it appeared in his biography of Jackson, published last 
year — to bring out this point so clearly that it has now 
become one of the accepted facts of our history. The 
whole chapter concerning it may be studied with great 
profit in Mr. Buell's book. 

It is with peculiar happiness that I reaffirm that the 
preservation to his country of that great and magnifi- 
cent territory beyond the Mississippi is due to the skill 
and determination and conspicuous ability of that great 
backwoodsman. A share of the honor for these results 
must be accorded William Henry Harrison. For had 
Proctor and Tecumseh been successful, I believe it 
would have been absolutely impossible to have driven 
the British from the northwest territory they had seized, 
and the cross of St. George would have waved forever 
from the Rocky Mountains to the Golden Gate. 

Jackson passionately disliked the English, and his 
inveterate animosity cost them dear. " He had heredi- 
tary wrongs to avenge on the British, and he hated them 
with an implacable fury that was absolutely devoid of 
fear." Parton, the Englishman, says : " He cherished 
that intense antipathy to Great Britain which distin- 
guished the survivors of the Revolution, some traces of 
v/hich could be discerned in the less enlightened parts 
of the country until within these few years. [It may still 

109 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

be discerned even among the enlightened. — C. T. B.] 
In these respects, he was the most American of Ameri- 
cans — an embodied Declaration of Independence — the 
Fourth of July Incarnate !" To him was vouchsafed 
the supreme satisfaction of thwarting one of the most 
gigantic projects ever conceived by a British Cabinet, 
struggled for by British diplomacy, fought for by the 
British army, and I am confident that never has there 
been a man on earth who took greater pleasure and 
satisfaction out of a success than Andrew Jackson did 
at New Orleans. It was some compensation for the 
loss of his mother and his brothers and his own brutal 
treatment in the Revolution. And besides all this, 
Jackson was Irish enough — not Scotch ! — to be exceed- 
ingly glad of the humiliation of the hereditary enemy 
of his race. 



no 



VI 

SOLDIER (continued) 

Jackson's only other campaign was against the Semi- 
noles in Florida in 1818. Florida was still a Spanish 
possession. From a military stand-point the campaign 
is uninteresting. No battles worthy of the name were 
fought. Jackson seized the country with practically no 
resistance. The Seminoles were defeated on several 
occasions, with no loss to his white troops. Jackson 
had no legal right, of course, to invade Florida again, 
although the Seminoles at the instigation of British 
agents were using Florida as a base from which to war 
upon the border settlements of the United States. The 
feeble Spanish government protested vainly against this 
breach of neutrality, but a country which cannot keep 
order within its own borders, and which permits its citi- 
zens, or denizens, to make war on their own account 
j upon a friendly nation has no reasonable ground for 
complaint if such disorder is kept down by force, even 
though its own territory be invaded for the purpose. 

The only episode of any note brought out by the cam- 
paign is the execution of a Scottish trader named Ar- 
buthnot and an ex-British marine officer named Am- 
brister. Jackson captured the ringleaders among the 
Indians, two chiefs named HilHs Hajo, or Francis, and 
Himollomico, and hanged them. They richly deserved 
their fate, but I am unable to find any warrant of law 
for their summary execution without trial or the observ- 
ance of other legal forms. 

Francis, a handsome man who spoke English and 
Spanish, who had been created a brigadier-general — in 

III 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the Colonial Establishment! — by the English while on 
a visit to England, requested that he might be shot like 
a man instead of being hanged like a dog. When this 
was reported to the general the request was refused. 
" No," said he, " let him hang. I will be more merciful 
to him than he was to poor Scott and the soldiers and 
women of the Fourth !" 

A boat containing forty soldiers of the Fourth United 
States Infantry, with seven soldiers' wives and four 
little children, all under the command of Lieutenant 
Scott of the Seventh United States Infantry, had been 
captured on the Appalachicola River on the thirtieth of 
November, 1817. In revenge for the seizure of Fowl- 
town, the Seminole stronghold, the Indians attacked this 
boat from ambush. 

" Lieutenant Scott and nearly every man in the boat 
were killed or badly wounded at the first fire. Other 
volleys succeeded. The Indians soon rose from their 
ambush and rushed upon the boat with a fearful yell. 
Men, women, and children were involved in one hor- 
rible massacre, or spared for more horrible torture. 
The children were taken by the heels and their brains 
dashed out against the sides of the boat. The men 
and women were scalped, all but one woman, who 
was not wounded by the previous fire. Four men 
escaped by leaping overboard and swimming to the 
opposite shore, of whom two only reached Fort Scott 
uninjured. Laden with plunder, the savages reentered 
the wilderness, taking with them the women whom they 
had spared. In twenty minutes after the first volley was 
fired into the boat, every creature in it but five was 
killed and scalped or bound and carried off." 

J. B. Rodgers, one of Jackson's officers, adds further 
details of this desperate, bloody, and forgotten affair: 
" Himollomico was a savage-looking man of forbid- 
ding countenance, indicating cruelty and ferocity. He 

112 



O SOLDIER 

was taciturn and morose. He was the chief that cap- 
tured Lieutenant R. W. Scott, with forty men and seven 
women, about the first of December, 1817, on the Appa- 
lachicola. The Heutenant with his whole party (except 
one woman retaken by General Jackson in the April 
following) were almost inhumanly massacred by order 
of Himollomico. Lieutenant Scott (as described by 
the woman prisoner) was tortured in every conceivable 
manner. Lightwood slivers were inserted into his body 
and set on fire, and in this way he was kept under 
torture for the whole day. Lieutenant Scott repeatedly 
begged and importuned the woman that escaped the 
slaughter to take a tomahawk and end his pain. But 
' No,' said she, ' I would as soon kill myself.' All the 
while Himollomico stood by, and with a fiendish grin 
enjoyed the scene. 

" Mr. Hambly told him when they were about to 
hang him that General Jackson would not let him be 
shot, but would hang him like a dog and disgrace him, 
and reminded him of how he had treated Lieutenant 
Scott and his party. 

" The woman said that the Indians severed the breasts 
of every woman of the party from the body, then 
scalped and tomahawked them — six in number. She, 
being the seventh, was taken and claimed by a young 
Indian warrior. He treated her very kindly and made 
her wait on him, and on the march during the day she 
rode his pony. She was retaken from the Indians in 
the April thereafter, between St. Mark's and Suwannee, 
by the friendly Indians and some Tennesseans, who 
killed twenty or thirty of the Indians, taking about 
ninety prisoners, with a large number of cattle." 

No wonder these two wretches were hanged out of 

hand ! The other executions were different affairs. Ar- 

buthnot and Ambrister were captured at St. Mark's on 

the Appalachicola. These two men were tried by a 

8 113 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

court-martial presided over by General Gaines and in- 
cluding- officers of rank and experience. They were 
found guilty of inciting the Indians to warfare on the 
United States and sentenced to death. Arbuthnot was 
hanged and Ambrister shot, Jackson, of course, ap- 
proving the act. 

A strict construction of the law of nations did not 
warrant the execution. Jackson was perfectly clear in 
his own mind as to the legality of his action. In the 
order for the carrying out of the sentence of the court 
he declared it to be " an established principle of the 
law of nations that any individual of a nation making 
war against the citizens of any other nation, they being 
at peace, forfeits his allegiance and becomes an outlaw 
and a pirate." 

This is a half truth. Such persons undoubtedly for- 
feit their allegiance and cannot demand the protection 
of their government, but they do not thereby become 
outlaws and pirates, at least not when civilized warfare 
is under consideration — that is, warfare between civil- 
ized nations ; else Lafayette, Von Stuben, Kosciusko, 
and De Kalb were all pirates and outlaws because they 
served the United States in the war of the Revolution! 
According to Jackson, if England had caught any of 
them she might have executed them out of hand ! Of 
course, the Creeks and Seminoles were not civilized 
nations, and perhaps in Jackson's mind that fact added 
to the supposed enormity of the actions of Arbuthnot 
and Ambrister. Jackson, by his summary execution of 
Francis and Himollomico, showed that he did not intend 
to accord belligerent rights to the savages, and he evi- 
dently put the two Englishmen in the same class in spite 
of his specious affirmation of a false principle of inter- 
national law. The evidence looked at from the present 
does not seem to warrant the guilt of Arbuthnot, who 
was only a trader. Nor is it very convincing in the case 

114 



SOLDIER 

of Ambrister, who, however, had no ostensible business 
in the country. 

On the whole, I must admit that, coldly considered, 
Jackson was not warranted in his action. His course 
was made the subject of bitter and determined attack 
on three grounds : first, that neither of the culprits was 
guilty; second, that if they were guilty, they were not 
deserving of death ; third, if they were deserving of 
death, Jackson had no power to inflict it. As to this, 
it must be remembered that they were tried by a duly 
constituted court-martial, according to military law, and 
were heard in their own defence. It is rather a serious 
thing for a historian writing years after an event to 
reverse a judgment rendered under such circumstances. 
This is not merely my own opinion, but that of one 
of the most distinguished historians of the age with 
whom I have corresponded on a similar question. I am, 
however, prepared to admit that the justice of the 
whole proceeding is open to doubt, and I have not given 
General Jackson the benefit of the doubt in passing a 
judgment upon him. 

Before dismissing the subject we may note these 
significant facts. The British government acquiesced 
in the execution, and the British government is re- 
markable among the nations of the world for the spirit 
and ability with which it protects the rights of citi- 
zens wherever they are impugned. The fact that the 
British government did nothing should be abundant 
evidence that it had no case. Richard Rush, our then 
minister to England, says, " The opinion formed (in 
a cabinet council) was that the conduct of these in- 
dividuals had been unjustifiable and, therefore, not call- 
ing for the special interference of Great Britain." 

Congress specifically approved of Jackson's course 
after a long and acrimonious debate over resolutions of 
censure of his action, in which Henry Clay was the 

115 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

leader of the anti-Jackson party. The following is the 
final vote of the Committee of the Whole in the House 
of Representatives on the question : 

" Does the Committee disapprove the execution of 
Arbuthnot and Ambrister? // does not. Ayes, 54; 
noes, 90. 

" Shall a law be drafted prohibiting the execution of 
captives by a commanding general? There shall not. 
Ayes, 57 ; noes, 98. 

" Was the seizure of Pensacola and the capture of 
Barrancas contrary to the Constitution? It zuas not. 
Ayes, 65 ; noes, 91. 

" Shall a law be drafted forbidding the invasion of 
foreign territory without the previous authorization of 
Congress, unless in the fresh pursuit of a defeated 
enemy? There shall not. Ayes, 42; noes, 112. 

" So the Committee of the Whole sustained General 
Jackson on every point. Jackson triumphed — Jackson 
always triumphed." 

Similar resolutions of censure introduced in the 
Senate were laid on the table by a practically unanimous 
vote. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, in one 
of the ablest papers in American diplomacy, defended 
and justified the execution, although Calhoun and others 
of the Cabinet wished to disavow it. Jackson, there- 
fore, was sustained by all branches of the government 
and by the people, but he was not sustained until the 
opposition had exhausted its capacity for argument to 
have his action condemned. Jackson himself had no 
doubt as to his course. As to that, Ben Butler in his 
eulogy on Jackson spoke to the following efifect : " ' My 
God would not have smiled on me,' was his character- 
istic remark when speaking of this affair to him who 
addresses you, ' had I punished only the poor, ignorant 
savages, and spared the white men who set them on.' " 

The Reverend Doctor Van Pelt, who was a fellow- 

116 



SOLDIER 

o 

passenger with Jackson on a steamer bound for New 
York after the close of the campaign, records the fol- 
lowing conversation between the old general and a rash 
interlocutor : 

*' Some of the people here at the North, General, think 
you were rather severe in altering the sentence of Am- 
brister and ordering him to be shot," said the man. 

A spark in a powder-flask ! The general turned 
quickly towards the audacious utterer of this blasphemy, 
looked at him sharply for a moment, rose to his feet, and 
began at the same moment to talk and pace the floor. 

. " Sir," he exclaimed, " that matter is misunderstood ! 
In the same circumstances I would do the same thing 
again. The example was needed. The war would not 
otherwise have ended so speedily as it did. The British 
government has not complained. The Spanish govern- 
ment does not complain. It is only our own people who 
are dissatisfied. Why, sir, those men were British sub- 
jects. If the execution was unjust, why has not the 
British government remonstrated? No, sir, they were 
spies. They ought to have been executed. And I tell 
you, sir, that I would do the same again." 

The people of the United States were not dissatisfied. 
Jackson's enemies and political opponents, of whom 
there were not a few, made a great to-do over the mat- 
ter, but nothing came of it. Niles' Register well ex- 
plains the popular opinion in the following paragraph: 

" The fact is that ninety-nine in a hundred of the peo- 
ple believe General Jackson acted on every occasion for 
the good of his country, and success universally crowned 
his efiforts. He has suffered more hardships and en- 
countered higher responsibilities than any man living in 
the United States to serve us, and has his reward in 
the sanction of his government and the approbation of 
the people." 

This was the last episode of im|)ortance in his military 

117 



o 



i' 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

• 
career. Estimates as to his character and services as 
a soldier are now in order. 

Parton writes : " The success of General Jackson's 
military career was due to three separate exertions of 
his will. First, his resolve not to give up the Creek 
War when Governor Blount advised it, when Coffee 
was sick, when the troops were flying homeward, when 
the general was almost alone in the wilderness. Second, 
his determination to clear the English out of Pensacola. 
Third, and greatest of all, his resolution to attack the 
British whenever and wherever they landed, no matter 
what the disparity of forces. It was that resolve that 
saved New Orleans. And it is to be observed of these 
measures that they were all irregular, contrary to pre- 
cedent, ' imprudent' — measures which no council of war 
would have advised, and no Secretary of War ordered ; 
measures which, failing, all the world would have 
hooted at — which, succeeding, the world can never 
praise enough." 

Roosevelt, no mean authority in the premises, thus 
characterizes him : " Andrew Jackson, who, with his 
cool head and quick eye, his stout heart and strong 
hand, stands out in history as the ablest general the 
United States produced, from the outbreak of the Revo- 
lution down to the beginning of the Great Rebellion." 

Eaton, who knew him long and intimately, has this 
to say : " Few generals had ever to seek for order 
amidst a higher state of confusion, or obtained success 
through more pressing difficulties. . . ." Major La- 
tour, a United States engineer officer, who was on Jack- 
son's staff, testifies that " the energy manifested by 
General Jackson spread, as it were, by contagion, and 
communicated itself to the whole army. I shall add 
that there was nothing which those who composed it did 
not feel themselves capable of performing if he ordered 
it to be done. It was enough that he expressed a wish, 

ii8 



SOLDIER ' 

ft 

or threw out the sHghtest intimation, and immediately 
a crowd of volunteers offered themselves to carry his 
views into execution." 

The late John Fiske pays him this splendid tribute : 
• " Throughout the whole of this campaign, in which 
Jackson showed such indomitable energy, he suffered 
from illness such as would have kept any ordinary man 
groaning in bed ; besides that, for most of the time his 
left arm had to be supported in a sling. His pluck was 
equalled by his thoroughness. Many generals after vic- 
tory are inclined to relax their efforts ; not so Jackson, 
who followed up every success with furious persistence, 
and whose admirable maxim was that in war ' until all 
is done, nothing is done.' " 

And Parton quotes Thomas H. Benton as follows: 
" For it was the nature of Andrew Jackson to finish 
whatever he undertook. He went for a clean victory or 
a clean defeat." Jackson is often considered as a self- 
willed, obstinate man, willing to take no advice and to 
listen to no one. Eaton contradicts that impression and 
writes of him : " No man is more willing to hear and to 
w respect the opinions of others ; and none where much 
'is at stake, and to conflict with his own, less disposed to 
be under their influence. He has never been known 
to call a covmcil of war whose decisions, when made, 
should shield him from responsibility or censure. His 
council of war, if doubting himself, was a few officers 
in whom he fully confided, whose advice was regarded, 
if their reasons were conclusive ; but these not being 
satisfactory, he at once adopted and pursued the course 
suggested by his own mind." 

One blot on his military record, or perhaps one 
quality which dimmed his military fame, was his de- 
termination to follow his own instincts without regard 
to the wishes or commands of his- superiors. True, his 
instincts were generally correct, but his lack of knowl- 

• 119 



S 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

edge and experience frequently led him to undertake 
the right thing in the wrong way and brought him to 
a disobedience of his superiors which, had the situation 
been reversed, he would have put down with ruthless 
determination. He was a good commander but a poor 
subordinate. One reason for that is, he had never been 
trained to obey. His whole experience as a soldier 
had been in supreme command. He had not worked 
himself up to that happy position by long and toilsome 
service in lower grades. Since he had never learned 
subordination, he did not appreciate the necessity of 
submission to higher authority, although he thoroughly 
realized the necessity of obedience, and exacted it in the 
sternest way from those whom fortune placed under 
him. 

In his first abortive campaign, when he led the Ten- 
nessee volunteers to Natchez and was there ordered to 
disband them by the Secretary of War, he flatly dis- 
obeyed the order, refused to allow Wilkinson, then in 
command, to interfere with his plans, commandeered 
wagons and supplies, and marched his men back to 
Nashville, justifying himself in the following language: 
"As between an open defiance of the orders of my 
superior, the Secretary of War, and my duty to the' 
private soldier who put himself under me, I shall risk 
all the consequences of being dishonored and losing my 
entire estate and much more. I shall take care of my 
men and carry them back home." 

Nor did he hesitate to draw bills of exchange on the 
government for the expenses of his return march, guar- 
anteeing them by his own private fortune. Wilkinson 
had no option but to dishonor the drafts when they 
were presented, and Jackson took them up without hesi- 
tation, although to do so was to impoverish him. He 
would have been a ruined man had not Benton suc- 
ceeded in getting the government to honor his drafts. 

120 



SOLDIER 

The successful soldier usually sustains a very intimate 
and personal relationship to his officers and men. Al- 
though he may be the sternest of disciplinarians, as far 
removed from contempt-breeding familiarity as the stars 
in their courses, and as immovable in his decisions as 
fate itself, he must know when to condescend. Jackson 
was a past master in the art of mingling with his sol- 
diers. In that he was not unlike Napoleon with his 
grenadiers. I have culled from various sources several 
anecdotes illustrating this trait in his character which 
will lighten this picture of Jackson the stern soldier. 

" When the little army set out from Natchez for a 
march of five hundred miles through the wilderness 
there were a hundred and fifty men on the sick-list, of 
whom fifty-six could not raise their heads from the 
pillow. There were but eleven wagons for the con- 
veyance of these. The rest of the sick were mounted on 
the horses of the officers. The general had three excel- 
lent horses, and gave them all up to the sick men, him- 
self trudging along on foot with the brisk pace that 
was usual with him. Day after day he tramped gayly 
along the miry forest roads, never tired, and always 
ready with a cheering word for others. They marched 
with extraordinary speed, averaging eighteen miles a 
day, and performing the whole journey in less than a 
month, and yet the sick men rapidly recovered under the 
reviving influences of a homeward march. ' Where am 
I?' asked one young fellow who had been lifted to his 
place in a wagon when insensible and apparently dying. 
'On your way home!' cried the general merrily; and 
the young soldier began to improve from that hour, and 
reached home in good health. 

" The name of ' Old Hickory' was not an instan- 
taneous inspiration, but a growth. First of all, the re- 
mark was made by some soldier, who was struck with 
his commander's pedestrian powers, that the general 

121 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

was ' tough.' Next it was observed of him that he was 
as ' tough as hickory.' Then he was called ' Hickory.' 
Lastly, the affectionate adjective ' Old' was prefixed, 
and the general henceforth rejoiced in the completed 
nickname, usually the first-won honor of a great com- 
mander." 

Every great soldier is nicknamed, at least every great- 
soldier that is loved by his men, and few are the soldiers 
who are, or become great — paradoxical as it seems — 
without that love from those they lead. Waldo Jackson 
once alluded to this fact as follows : 

" The pleasant raillery which is the very zest of life 
when played off by one gentleman upon another was, 
unfortunately, practised upon a captain of a company in 
the New Orleans campaign, who took it in high dud- 
geon. In imitation of the names of Indian chiefs, his 
men called him Captain Fiat-Foot. He remonstrated 
against it to General Jackson, who pleasantly remarked, 
' Really, Captain, it is difficult getting along with these 
gay young fellows ; but so long as they toil at the lines 
with such vigor, and fight the enemy with such courage, 
we officers must overlook a little innocent levity. Why, 
Captain, they call me Old Hickory, and if you prefer 
my title to yours, I will readily make an exchange.' The 
captain retired, proud of the title of Captain Fiat- 
Foot." 

Here is an anecdote of Eaton's which harks back to 
Marion, of whom a similar incident was told, as of many 
another starving captain. 

" In the Creek campaign a soldier one morning, with 
woe-begone countenance, approached the general, 
stating that he was nearly starved, that he had nothing to 
eat, and could not imagine what he should do. He was 
the more encouraged to complain from perceiving that 
the general, who had seated himself at the root of a tree, 
waiting the coming up of the rear of the army, was 

122 



SOLDIER 

busily engaged in eating something, he knew not what. 
The poor fellow was impressed with the belief from 
what he saw that want only attached to the soldiers, and 
that the officers, particularly the general, were liberally 
and well supplied. He accordingly approached him 
with great confidence in being relieved. Jackson told 
him that it had always been a rule with him never to 
turn away a hungry man when it was in his power to 
relieve him. ' I will most cheerfully,' said he, ' divide 
with you what I have,' and, putting his hand in his 
pocket, drew forth a few acorns, on which he had been 
feasting, adding that it was the best and only fare he 
had. The soldier seemed much surprised, and forthwith 
circulated amongst his comrades that their general was 
actually subsisting upon acorns, and that they ought, 
hence, no more complain." 

To know his men, to give them a sense of personal 
relationship to him, is a highly desirable quality in a 
commander. As proof of this Colonel Butler said : " It 
was astonishing to see how many men — private soldiers 
— the general could tell by name. He knew almost 
every Tennessean and at least half the Kentuckians. 
His manner with them was easy; a modern general 
would call it familiar. Still, he was dignified, and they 
all seemed to understand him. I remember him rallying 
one of the young Robertsons — grandson of the old pio- 
neer. Robertson was quite young. He belonged to 
Polk's company [of Carroll's command. — C. T. B.]. 
' Joe,' said the general, ' how are they using you ? 
Wouldn't you rather be with Aunt Lucy (meaning his 
mother) than with me?' 

" ' Not by a d — d sight. General,' young Joe stoutly 
replied. * But I wouldn't mind if Aunt Lucy was here 
a little while.' Jackson laughed, patted the boy on the 
shoulder, and said, ' Stick to 'em, Joe. We'll smash 
h — 1 out of 'em, and then you can go home to^Aunt 

123 




THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Lucy,' This was one of the many similar scenes that 
morning — or at any time when he went along the lines." 

And Buell records the following : " A few days after 
the battle, while the army yet lay in the Chalmette lines 
awaiting the pleasure of the British force still in camp 
on Villere's plantation, a well-built youth, about nineteen 
or twenty years old, belonging to Carroll's command, 
was on sentry post at the breastwork, pacing up and 
down with a long rifle carelessly thrown over his right 
shoulder. General Jackson came along in his usual way, 
on foot, inspecting the lines. Seeing this boy on duty, 
the general stopped and talked with him two or three 
minutes in a familiar way, and finally handed him a 
letter, which the young fellow read and then handed it 
back to the general, who resumed his tour of inspec- 
tion. 

" The regular officer, who had witnessed the inter- 
view, went to the youthful soldier and asked his name. 

" ' My name is Hays, sir.' 

" ' You seem to be acquainted with the general.' 

" ' Oh, yes, sir. He is my uncle — that is, you know, 
my uncle up home in Tennessee !' 

" The officer, amused, asked : 

" ' Your uncle, up home in Tennessee, you say ; and 
what is he here?' 

" ' Oh, here he is the general, sir !' 

" To further inquiries the boy responded that he was 
the youngest son of Mrs. Jackson's sister, Mrs. Hays, 
and that he had lived a good part of his boyhood at 
the Hermitage with ' Uncle Jackson and Aunt Rachel.' 
He then explained to the officer that the letter General 
Jackson showed him was from ' Aunt Rachel' and con- 
tained some messages from his own family. Finally, 
the officer remarked ; * And so you are General Jack- 
son's nephew and a private soldier here. I wonder that 
he doesn't do better by you ?' 

124 



SOLDIER 

" ' Well, sir, that doesn't make any difference to him. 
So long as I'm here with a gun, he's satisfied !' " 

So, it is evident, was young Hays ! 

Nor was there ever a commander more quick to 
recognize merit in his subordinates nor more willing to 
make generous public acknowledgment of it. On the 
twenty-fifth of January, when he dispatched Colonel 
Hayne, his inspector-general, to Washington with his 
report of the operations around New Orleans, after 
specifically requesting him to commend by name to the 
Secretary of War on Jackson's behalf a number of 
officers who had distinguished themselves, lest he should 
have unwittingly omitted any he includes in his order 
to Hayne the following paragraph : 

" Any officers whose merit you may have noticed, and no 
doubt there are many such, you will be proud to do justice to, 
and, for God's sake, entreat the Secretary of War not to yield 
too much, in time to come, to recommendations of members 
of Congress* He must be sensible of the motives from which, 
for the most part, such recommendations proceed, and events 
have too often and too sadly proved how little merit they 
imply." 

After that, on the thirtieth of January, Jackson had 
spent " many hours in drawing up a general order — a 
permanent roll of honor — which was a source of lasting 
happiness to many brave men and their friends. In this 
document every corps which had served during the 
siege, every commanding officer, every subaltern who 
had distinguished himself, the physicians, the general's 
aids and secretaries, several privates and unattached 
volunteers, were mentioned by name and honored with 
a few words of generally well-discriminated compliment. 
The officers who had fallen in action received also a 
kindly tribute. This paper contained seventy names. 

* A thing all Secretaries have to fight against. 

125 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Hundreds of the descendants of the men thus distin- 
guished still cherish it with gratitude and pride." 

Two days after Hayne's departure, in order that the 
temporary contingent of citizens of his command might 
not feel slighted, he addressed a most generous letter 
to Nicholas Girod, the mayor of New Orleans, in which 
he referred in the most complimentary manner to the 
patriotism and self-sacrifice and devotion to the public 
good which had been displayed by the mayor and citi- 
zens during the operations. He wrote : 

" I anticipate with great satisfaction the period when the 
final departure of the enemy will enable you to resume the or- 
dinary functions of your office and restore the citizens to their 
usual occupations — they have merited the blessing of peace by 
bravely facing the dangers of war. I should be most ungrate- 
ful or insensible if I did not acknowledge the marks of confi- 
dence and affectionate attachment with which I have personally 
been honored by your citizens ; a confidence that has enabled 
me with greater success to direct the measures for their de- 
fence, an attachment which I sincerely reciprocate, and which 
I shall carry with me to the grave." 

In general his relation with the citizen volunteers was 
very pleasant. Recognizing the difference between them 
and the others, he handled them with an adroitness and 
tact which he did not feel it necessary to employ in the 
case of his Tennesseans or the regular soldiers. The 
citizen soldiers constantly wanted to leave the front 
when no fighting was going on, to go back home to 
visit their families, to attend to their business — there 
were a thousand pretexts which afforded them excuse 
for asking the general's permission. He did not leave 
the lines himself and he rarely allowed anyone else to 
visit the city. The general's dexterous management 
was never more apparent than in the following episode, 
told by Edward Livingston : 

" Even those fathers of families whom Major Planche 

126 



SOLDIER 

commanded found it hard to get permission to go to 
town for an hour or two. Some of them were a whole 
week at the Hues without seeing their famihes. Nay, 
the gentlemen volunteers who surrounded the general's 
person, and over whom he had no military authority, 
discovered that he had taken them at their word very 
literally and expected them to set an example of endur- 
ance and diligence. It may have been on this Christmas 
Day that a pretty scene occurred between the general 
and Louis Livingston (a fine, gallant youth of sixteen, 
the son of Edward Livingston) which shows at once 
the delicacy and firmness of Jackson. 

" ' May I go to town to-day. General ?' asked the 
young man, who had been complimented with the title 
of captain. 

" ' Of course, Captain Livingston,' replied the general, 
' you may go. But ought you to go ?' 

" The youth blushed, bowed, saluted, and, withdraw- 
ing without a word, returned to his duty." 

Mr. Vincent Nolte, a foreigner residing in New Or- 
leans at the time, who had fought bravely enough and 
who afterwards published a book of interesting remi- 
nisences, in which he showed that he was not well 
affected towards Jackson, had a difficulty with him re- 
garding a settlement for cotton and blankets which the 
general had appropriated for the use of his army. The 
general had agreed to pay for anything he took at the 
price current on the day he took it. Nolte had a num- 
ber of blankets, and as blankets were scarce, the price 
on the day the blankets were seized was very high. 
He was paid accordingly, and made no demur about 
accepting the money. Of course, the shipment of cot- 
ton had ceased during the campaign and cotton was a 
drug on the market. Its price was very low. When 
the British had gone and things had resumed their 
normal state the price of cotton rose rapidly. Mr. 

127 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Nolte desired to be paid for his cotton at the after-war 
price. In other words, he wanted to take advantage of 
the high price on both commodities. This is the way, 
according to Mr. Nolte, the general settled him : 

" I called on the General. He heard me, but that was 
all. ' Are you not lucky to have saved the rest of your 
cotton by our defence ?' he asked. 

" * Certainly, General, as lucky as others in the city 
whose cotton had also been saved. But the difference 
between me and the rest is that none of the others have 
anything to pay and I have to bear all the loss." 

"'Loss!' exclaimed the general. 'Why, you have 
saved all !' 

" I saw that an argument was useless with so stiff- 
necked a man, and remarked to him that I only wanted 
compensation for my cotton, and that the best compen- 
sation would be to give me precisely that had been 
taken from me and of the same quantity. 

" To this the general replied that he liked straight- 
forward business, that my proposition was too compli- 
cated, that to adopt it would be to compel him to go 
into the market as a buyer, etc. He wound up by say- 
ing: ' You mvist take six cents (a pound) for your cot- 
ton.' [The price on the day it was seized — it was now 
worth nine times as much. — C. T. B.] I endeavored to 
resume the argument. He cut me off with : ' I can say 
no more. It is done !' ' Then, assuming an entirely 
different tone, he said, ' Come, come, now, Mr. Nolte, 
we have been soldiers together ! Let's take a glass of 
whiskey and water. You must be d — d dry with all 
your arguing.' 

" Then, though many were waiting to see him in the 
next room, he began talking in a pleasant way about 
what he termed ' our efforts and sacrifices to defend 
the country,' the ' grand success that had crowned our 
efforts,' etc., etc., and wound up by saying that ' a 

128 



SOLDIER 

little loss on cotton was nothing compared to the honor 
of having borne a creditable part in such achieve- 
ments.' " It was a pity for his own fame that Mr. 
Nolte did not take the same view. 

An imperious man himself, Jackson loved a man of 
like temper. A steamboat captain had been ordered to 
do a certain thing and had flatly disobeyed his com- 
mands in order to insure the safety of some women and 
children who had been committed to his charge. Jack- 
son sent for him post haste, determined to call him to 
account for his defiance, which had been open, not to say 
flagrant. When the man of the river presented himself 
before the general " the latter, fiercely eyeing him, in a 
voice husky with intense passion, made the inquiry, — 

" ' By , Captain Shreve, dare you disobey my 

orders?' " 

" ' Yes, by , / dare!' was the vehement reply of 

the undaunted captain. 

" Jackson could not repress the expression of surprise 
which spread itself over his face at the unexpected reply 
of the daring captain, and, in a tone of voice consider- 
ably milder than his first inquiry, bade Shreve explain 
his conduct. Upon the explanation being given, Jackson 
dismissed him, simply saying that he had forgotten his 
promise to the citizens, whose wives and children Cap- 
tain Shreve then had upon his vessel." 

Although he had no love for the British, two instances 
of his generous treatment of his enemies may be cited. 
The following is his account of the restoration of Gen- 
eral Keane's sword. " Major-General Keane, having 
lost his sword in the action of the eighth of January, 
and having expressed a great desire to regain it, valuing 
it as the present of an esteemed friend, I thought proper 
to have it restored to him, thinking it more honorable to 
the American character to return it, after the expression 
of these wishes, than to retain it as a trophy of victory. 
9 129 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

I believe, however, it is a singular instance of a British 
general soliciting the restoration of his sword fairly lost 
in battle." 

So much for his dealings with the general. Here is 
what he wrote to General Lambert after the evacuation 
concerning some British soldiers who had been pris- 
oners : 

" Some of my officers under a mistaken idea that deserters 
were confined with prisoners, have, as I have understood, made 
improper applications to some of the latter to quit your ser- 
vice. It is possible they may have in some instances succeeded 
in procuring either a feigned or a real consent to this effect ; 
the whole of the transaction, however, met my marked repre- 
hension, and all the prisoners are now restored to you. But 
as improper allurements may have been held out to these men, 
it will be highly gratifying to my feelings to learn that no in- 
vestigation will be made, or punishment inflicted, in conse- 
quence of the conduct of those who may, under such circum- 
stances, have swerved from their duty." 

General Lambert assured Jackson in his reply that no 
investigation should be made into the conduct of the 
returning troops, and applauded the humanity of the 
request. 

In his campaigns Jackson was served by some im- 
mortal men. Among them were Coffee, Carroll, Hous- 
ton, and Crockett.'"' Crockett and Jackson differed in 
after years, but the other three remained his staunchest 
friends to the end. In the trying times at Fort Strother, 
in the Creek War, when all men were deserting him, 
they showed their mettle. Said Carroll : " I will go 
back to the frontiers and say Jackson wants soldiers." 
Said Coffee : " I will make a captain's company, and 
lead it, of officers whose men have left them." Colyar 
calls attention to this touching little episode : 

* See my books, " American Fights and Fighters — Bor- 
der" and " The Conquest of the Southwest," for some ac- 
count of Crockett and Houston. 

130 



SOLDIER 

"... One day when the great warrior had come to 
be President of the United States and in the White 
House, he sat down at his table, pulled his hat over 
his eyes, and wrote: 

" Sacred to the Memory of 

GENERAL JOHN COFFEE, 

Who departed this life 

7th day of July, 1833, 

Aged 61 years. 

" ' As a husband, parent, and friend, he was affectionate, ten- 
der, and sincere. He was a brave, prompt, and skilful general; 
a distinguished and sagacious patriot; an unpretending, just, 
and honest man. To complete his character, religion mingled 
with these virtues her serene and gentle influence and gave him 
that solid distinction among men which detraction cannot sully, 
nor the grave conceal. Death could do no more than to remove 
so excellent a being from the theatre he so much adorned in 
this world to the bosom of God who created him, and who 
alone has the power to reward the immortal spirit with ex- 
haustless bliss.' " 

Crockett is widely known as the author of that famous 
aphorism, " Be sure you're right, then go ahead." In 
the following little episode, which may well be true, 
Colyar ascribes the origin of the saying to Jackson him- 
self. " General Moore was a young captain in Jack- 
son's army. He had a company from Fayetteville in 
which was Davy Crockett, an awkward, boy-like soldier. 
General Moore said his company became somewhat in- 
subordinate in idleness, and he made known to his men 
that he would not remain captain of a company that 
would not obey his orders, and he was going to put the 
facts before the general and ask him what to do. And 
when he started to the general's headquarters, Davy 
Crockett blabbed out that he was going along and see 
what the old general said. So he and his private called 
on the general ; he had made known his trouble, when 
the general said to him : 

131 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" ' Captain, I have but little to say to you. It is this : 
Don't you make any orders on your men without ma- 
turing them, and then you can execute them, no matter 
what it costs ; and that is all I have to say.' But when 
they got back to the company the men were anxious to 
know what the general said, and Crockett thus- spoke, 
' The old general told the captain to be sure he was 
right, and then go ahead.' " The phrase certainly is 
thoroughly Jacksonian. 

To sum up, as a strategist, a tactician and a fighter, 
as a disciplinarian and a leader of men, this " Back- 
woods Soldier" — name applied to him in derision ! — 
had no cause to blush when contrasted with the most 
accomplished officers of his time. His opportunities 
were limited, his resources small, his operations, save in 
one instance, insignificant ; but he showed his qualities 
just as thoroughly and just as decisively as if he had 
commanded greater armies and fought larger battles. 
Carlyle says, " You may paint with a very large brush 
and not be a great painter after all ;" and the con- 
verse is equally true — you may paint with a small brush 
upon a small piece of canvas and yet produce a 
masterpiece. From what Jackson did and the way he 
did it, I think it quite proper to accord him a high 
place among the truly great soldiers of his country. 



132 



VII 



u 



personal appearance, manners, jacksonian 

vulgarity" 

The popular impression of Jackson's appearance, his 
manners and bearing, is about as erroneous as popular 
impressions usually are. No doubt his nicknames have 
conduced to perpetuate the almost universal error into 
which posterity has fallen, and it is singular that the 
popular opinion should prevail so obstinately in view of 
the abundant evidence to the contrary that is on record. 

Because Jackson was a Democrat, when to be a 
Democrat was synonymous with being a man of the 
very plain people, it has become almost a universal belief 
that he was a vulgarian, and that " Old Hickory" and 
the " Backwoods General," with the attributes which 
ordinarily accompanied such appelations, aptly char- 
acterized his appearance and his manners. 

Sumner says : " One can easily discern in Jackson's 
popularity an element of instinct and personal recogni- 
tion by the mass of the people. They felt ' he is one 
of us.' ' He stands by us.' ' He is not proud and does 
not care for style, but only for plenty of what is sound, 
strong, and good.' ' He thinks just as we do about 
this.' The anecdotes about him which had the greatest 
currency were those which showed him trampling on 
some conventionality of polite society, or shocking the 
tastes and prejudices of people from ' abroad.' In truth, 
Jackson never did these things except for effect, or 
when carried away by his feelings, but his adherents 
had a most enjoyable sense of their own power in sup- 
porting him in defiance of sober, cultivated people, who 

133 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

disliked him for his violence, ignorance, and lack of 
cultivation." 

Peck writes : " The prevailing and potential idea of 
Jackson was that he was ' of and for the people,' and 
it was prodigiously aided by the criticism that he was 
without training, and on that account barbarously unfit 
for President. Nor was the popular notion of him 
wrong. He was thoroughly homespun. Despite his 
martial bearing and the belligerent vigor of his adminis- 
tration, he was accessible and unaffected. To all but 
his declared enemies he was sincerely cordial and win- 
ning. His advanced age and later experience had sub- 
dued and improved his manner. He was in all things 
entirely direct : and such a man is necessarily free from 
cant and pretension." 

The Presidents of the United States up to Jackson's 
advent were among the finest gentlemen of their time. 
They were products of aristocratic Virginia or of no 
less aristocratic New England. They were mainly 
college-bred and had enjoyed the best society of the age 
in which they lived in Europe and America. Jackson 
had experienced none of these advantages. He had 
lived his life on the frontier amid the rudest and most 
primitive conditions, yet no one could be more courtly, 
or more gracious, or more gentle in his bearing on 
occasion, especially in the society of women. 

There is something about the Celtic race which 
differentiates it from other peoples, and among these 
setting-apart characteristics is a certain urbanity, an old- 
world courtesy, which you will find in even the com- 
monest and plainest Irishmen. They have the outward 
politeness of the Parisian with the addition of a heart, 
which the Parisian lacks. Their politeness is not merely 
superficial, but innate, and Jackson had this to the full. 
There was a touch of knight-errantry about the man, 
too. He was willing and anxious to espouse the cause 

134 



PERSONAL APPEARANCE 

of any woman in distress. It may be stated here that 
he was the purest and most continent of men in an age 
in which less value was set upon these things by con- 
temporaries than in the present. More will be said on 
this subejct in a chapter concerning his relations to the 
other sex. Judge Overton writes : 

" In his singularly delicate sense of honor, and in 
what I thought his chivalrous conception of the female 
sex, it occurred to me that he was distinguishable from 
every other person with whom I was acquainted." 

The first description of his appearance that I have 
come across is from the pen of Mrs. Susan Smart, who, 
when she was a little girl, met him in the highway one 
September afternoon in 1780, when he was but thirteen 
years old. She describes him as " a tall, slender, ' gang- 
ling fellow,' legs long enough almost to meet under the 
pony he was riding ; a damaged, wide-brimmed hat 
flapping down over his face, which was yellow and 
worn ; the figure covered with dust ; tired looking, as 
though the youth had ridden till he could scarcely sit 
on his pony." He was the forlornest apparition that 
ever revealed itself to her eyes during the whole of her 
life. She ran out on the road and hailed him. He 
reined in his pony, when the following brief conversa- 
tion ensued between them : 

Ske. — " Where are you from ?" 

He.—" From below." 

She. — "Where are you going?" 

He.—" Above." 

She. — " Who are you for?" 

He. — " The Congress." 

She — " What are you doing below?" 

He. — " Oh, we are popping them still." 

She (to herself). — "It's mighty poor popping such 
as you will do, anyhow." (Aloud) "What's your 
name ?" 

135 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

He. — " Andrew Jackson." 

One of the earliest descriptions we have of his ap- 
pearance comes from an aged servant in the family 
of Judge McCay, of Salisbury, who saw him often, and 
who briefly remarks that " Jackson was a fair-com- 
plexioned young man, with long, sandy hair — one of 
the most genteel young men of the place." 

Another woman, Mrs. Anne Rutherford, who knew 
him well, thus describes him : " He was always dressed 
neat and tidy and carried himself as if he were a rich 
man's son. The day he was licensed he had on a new 
suit, with broadcloth coat, ruffled shirt, and other gar- 
ments in the best of fashion. The style of powdering 
the hair was still in vogue then ; but he had his abun- 
dant suit of dark-red hair combed carefully back from 
his forehead and temples and, I suspect, made to lay 
down smooth with bear's oil. He was full six feet tall 
and very slender, but yet of such straightness of form 
and such proud and graceful carriage as to make him 
look well-proportioned. In feature he was by no means 
good-looking. His face was long and narrow, his feat- 
ures sharp and angular, and his complexion yellow and 
freckled. But his eyes tvere handsome. They were 
very large, a kind of steel-blue, and when he talked to 
you he always looked straight into your own eyes. I 
have talked with him a great many times and never saw 
him avert his eyes from me for an instant. It was the 
same way with men. He always looked them straight 
in the eye as much as to say, ' I have nothing to be 
ashamed of and I hope you haven't.' This and the 
gentle manner he had made you forget the plainness of 
his features. When he was calm he talked slowly and 
with very good-selected language. But if much ani- 
mated by anything, then he would talk fast and with a 
very marked North-Ireland brogue, which he got from 
his mother and the Crawfords who raised him — all of 

136 



PERSONAL APPEARANCE 

him I c..,„„ot describe exceoAn'^\'°'™*'"^ '^^' 
ence, on ■ a kind of majesty I„f^ *" '' ™^ ^ ?'^- 
young rjnan." ^ - ^ ™'^^''' =''«' in any other 

PartOOT refers to him when he h,H • . 
twentiet.h year as follows ""He L^ '^"^ ""'"'<' ^'" 
fellow. rHe stood six feet =, !r f™"" *° •>« a 'all 

He was iremartably si nder'or "h":^' I" '''^ ^'°*'"S=- 
world, ba,t he was also reLr m '"''""' ^S''^ °f *« 
forn, had: the effect of IZf'^ ""'*■ '" "«' "^ 
metrical. His movement faj " """'°"' "^^■"^ ^y"" 
gracetul and dign fieT jn 1 "^^ """'' '''"Sularly 

lay and sphereTe excelled ht ^^'=°'"P"=h"^"t^ of his 
circle, and was reerrded t ., ^°™^ "™ "* ^s own 
model. Hewa anTxa'tite''. " '' ""'" ^^ief and 
who ever s=w him X b,?"™""' f ^" ""' ^^'- 

of forest an frontier lif J f r ^"'° ""^ *«"«'s 

He was a aSitarsho and I "'f '"'^ ■"'"^''^d. 

by. ' Georg . h st trte ™ ' "T^ ™^ "^ -d 
to point outthe tree in wM l! ^ '," ?'*"■ y""^' "^^d 
master put to sue s ve a ,f in t th °''". "™ "'' 
bodily activi* was unusual H '""^ ''°'^- ™^ 

quick, brisk,,pringine r'- J^l "^' * ''"""g "an of a 
body; and .ough h^ ^ns i;' Ho"°' ' '^^^ ''""^ ''" '''^ 
was tough ad endurSg " °" ""' "°' "'^"''- '' 

y "He waf-ar from handsome H;. f 
/ thin, and f-- his (nr^hlZu , " '^'='= "'as long, 

row his h-,' reddish sand '^ .'"" '°"™''''' """ 
abundant U felf dowTln" '" ™'°.'' "'^ <=«eedingly 
bristling h of he ordin? °'" ""' ^"'''•'"^''d- The 
latter half ,hfe life The.J """?"' ''"='°"S '° '^e 
his face tl was not clm„ ™f' ''"' °"' ^"^'"^ "f 
were of a ,'p blue and ^nrf^T""'' ^^^^^ "-hich 
expression ^en h^^^^ °^ '^:fl ts T' 

seemed fin athout beW SO so hi« /o • ^^"""^ 

g so, so his face, owing to the 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

,„icU, direct glance of ^ 2:;^^^:]^^:, ^ 
i ,mgence,^™duced on ^he s more ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 

: S ri/Ie ladies % oM you would fuhink he 
C^LveW an Apollo^n fo™^;d e^^^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 

A ladv of Nashville— Mrs. i^. t^u^ _ , 

a,t he'had .aUen his -at on*e bench • 8;C^^ 
was in lSo8. when I ^^ ^ g' ' of ^-^^ ^^ 

saw General Jackson- '^^-^."/j^^,, „,,3e,f and 
the house of Captain ^y"' .^ ^e sitting at 

another young lady were v.s ting. W g 

work one afternoon when ^ servant who . . 

at the window, -Maimed Oh see what , J ^^ 

gentleman is »mmg up the road^ ^ fine gentleman, 
the ^^f^X^^ ,""ore 'an Upright, -.riking fig- 
re" hilTacttotr coming up over the kree, holsters 
and eve ything handsome and complete. He stopped 
before the door and said to a negro w,om he saw 

"'•-Old man, does Captain Lyon live here ^ 
" T°e old man gave the desired in orma^^^^ 

" • Is he at home?' inquired the strange. 

" He was not at home. 

::r he wre^^rctrafty momen, The old 

™^.wVr;^.:"c::Sued*hes.g^^^ 

--r-^Tv^rathrdw*-' " 

home to-night, I ^^^^\f ^^-^^^^^^^ ,„d deferen led the 

" The old negro, all assiaviuy ciii^i 
horse to ?he stable, and the stranger entered e hous , 
where we girls were sitting as demurely though 
1 .rlf been peeping and listenmg. \ all rose 

we had tlOt Oeen pectus ^^ t. a ^r^A <;nrl n<; hp 

as he entered the room. He bowed and snd as he 



said : ^^g 



PERSONAL APPEARANCE 

" ' Excuse my intruding upon you, ladies, in the ab- 
sence of Captain Lyon. I am Judge Jackson. I have 
business with Captain Lyon and am here by his invita- 
tion. I hope I do not incommode you.' 

" We were all captivated by this polite speech and the 
agreeable manner in which it was spoken. Soon after 
Captain Lyon entered, accompanied by two officers of 
the army, one of whom was Doctor Bronaugh. We 
had a delightful evening. I remember Jackson was full 
of anecdote, and told us a great deal about the early 
days of Tennessee. Doctor Bronaugh, as it happened, 
sat next to me and paid me somewhat marked attention. 
The party broke up the next morning, and we saw Judge 
Jackson ride away on his fine horse, and all agreed that 
a finer-looking man or a better horseman there was not 
in Tennessee. Years passed before I saw him again. I 
was a married woman, though he knew it not. He 
recognized me in a moment, and so well did he remem- 
ber the incidents of this evening that the first salutations 
were no sooner over than he said, laughing, — 

" ' Well, Miss , how is that handsome young 

officer who was so attentive to you at Captain Lyon's?' 

" ' General,' said I, ' permit me to present to you my 
husband, Captain K.' 

" Not another word was said about the handsome 
young officer." 

In his book, " Jackson and New Orleans," Mr. Alex- 
ander Walker, of Louisiana, thus pictures him : " The 
chief of the party, which was composed of five or six 
persons, was a tall, gaunt man, of very erect carriage, 
with a countenance full of stern decision and fearless 
energy, but furrowed with care and anxiety. His com- 
plexion was sallow and unhealthy ; his hair was iron 
gray, and his body thin and emaciated, like that of one 
who had just recovered from a lingering and painful 
sickness. But the fierce glare of his bright and hawk- 

139 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

like eyes betrayed a soul and spirit which triumphed 
over all the infirmities of the body. His dress was 
simple and nearly threadbare. A small leather cap pro- 
tected his head, and a short Spanish blue cloak his body, 
whilst his feet and legs were encased in high dragoon 
boots, long ignorant of polish or blacking, which reached 
to the knees. In age he appeared to have passed about 
forty-five winters — the season for which his stern and 
hardy nature seemed peculiarly adapted." 

And this is Eaton's description : " In the person of 
General Jackson is perceived nothing of the robust or 
elegant. He is six feet and an inch high, remarkably 
straight and spare, and weighs not more than a hundred 
and forty-five pounds. His conformation appears to dis- 
qualify him for hardship; yet, accustomed to it from 
early life, few are capalDle of enduring fatigue to the 
same extent or with less injury. His dark-blue eyes, 
with brows arched and slightly projecting, possess a 
marked expression, but when, from any cause, excited 
they sparkle with peculiar lustre and penetration. In 
his manners he is pleasing — in his address commanding ; 
while his countenance, marked with firmness and de- 
cision, beams with a strength and intelligence that 
strikes at first sight. In his deportment there is nothing 
repulsive. Easy, afifable, and familiar, he is open and 
accessible to all. Influenced by the belief that merit 
should constitute the only difiference in men, his atten- 
tion is equally bestowed on honest poverty as on titled 
consequence. No man, however inconsiderable his 
standing, ever approached him on business that he did 
not patiently listen to his story and afiford him all the 
information in his power. His moral character is with- 
out reproach, and by those who know him intimately 
he is most esteemed. With him benevolence is a promi- 
nent virtue. He was never known to pass distress with- 
out seeking to assist and relieve it. 

140 



MANNERS 

" It is imputed to him that he derived from his birth 
a temper irritable and hasty, which has had the effect to 
create enemies and involve him in disputes. In a world 
like this exemption from fault is not expected — to a 
higher destiny is perfection reserved ! For purposes 
wiser than men can conjecture has it been ordained that 
vice and virtue shall exist together in the human breast, 
tending, like the happy blending of light and shade in a 
picture, to reflect each other in brighter contrast. Some 
of the foibles and imperfections, therefore, which 
Heaven mingles in the composition of man are to be 
looked for, and must be found with every one. In Jack- 
son, however, these defects of character exist to an ex- 
tent limited as with most men, and the world is in error 
in presuming him under a too high control of feeling 
and passion. A fixed devotion to those principles which 
honor sanctions peculiarly attaches to him and renders 
him scrupulously attentive to his promises and engage- 
ments of every description. Preserving system in his 
transactions, his fiscal arrangements are made to cor- 
respond with his resources, and hence his every en- 
gagement in relation to svich subjects is met with marked 
punctuality, not for the reason that he is a man of 
extraordinary wealth, but rather because he has method, 
and, with a view to his resources, regulates properly 
his balance of trade. 

" No man has been more misconceived in character. 
Many on becoming acquainted with him have been 
heard to admit the previous opinions which have been 
entertained and to admit how great has been their mis- 
take. Rough in appearance — positive and overbearing in 
manner, are what all upon a first introduction expect to 
find ; and yet none are possessed of milder manners or 
of more conciliating address. The public situations in 
which he has been placed, and the circumstances which 
surrounded him, are doubtless the cause that these opin- 

141 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

ions have become so prevalent ; but they are opinions 
which an acquaintance with him tends speedily to re- 
move." 

The "American Officer" * in his admirable little life of 
Jackson says : " He is deeply versed in the science of 
human nature — hence he is rarely deceived in the confi- 
dence he reposes in his friends, and knows well how to 
detect his enemies. The first he loves, and sets the last 
at defiance. In the discharge of official duties, he 
imparts dignity to the office and secures respect to him- 
self — in the circles of private life, he is affable without 
descending to low familiarity. 

" In his person he is above the ordinary height, ele- 
gantly formed, but of very spare habit. But ' toil has 
strung his nerves, and purified his blood,' and he can 
bear any fatigue within the power of human endurance. 
The features of his face have that striking peculiarity 
which immediately attracts attention. His large, dark- 
blue eyes are settled deep under prominent arching 
eyebrows, which he can clothe in frowns to repel an 
enemy and dress in smiles to delight his friends — his 
whole person shows that he was born to command." 

Shortly after Jackson's arrival at New Orleans to 
undertake the defence of the place he called upon the 
Livingston family. Madame Livingston was one of the 
most elegant and accomplished women in America. 
This is the way her husband describes his wife's first 
interview with Jackson : " The general appeared in the 
full-dress uniform of his rank — that of a major-general 
in the regular army. This was a blue frock coat with 
buff facings and gold lace, white waistcoat and close- 
fitting breeches, also of white cloth, with morocco boots 
reaching above the knees. To my astonishment this 
uniform was new, spotlessly clean, and fitted his tall, 



* Colonel James Gadsden. 
142 



MANNERS 

slender form perfectly. I had before seen him only in 
the somewhat worn and careless fatigue uniform he 
wore on duty at headquarters. I had to confess to 
myself that the new and perfectly fitting full-dress 
uniform made almost another man of him. 

" I also observed that he had two sets of manners ; 
one for the headquarters, where he dealt with men 
and the problems of war; the other for the drawing- 
room, where he met the gentler sex and was bound 
by the etiquette of fair society. But he was equally at 
home in either. When we reached the middle of the 
room the ladies rose. I said, ' Madame and Mademoi- 
selles, I have the honor to present Major-General Jack- 
son, of the United States Army.' 

" The general bowed to madame and then right and 
left to the young ladies about her. Madame advanced 
to meet him, took his hand, and presented him to the 
young ladies severally, name by name. Unfortunately, 
of the twelve or more young ladies present — all of 
whom happened to be French — not more than three 
could speak English ; and as the general understood not 
a word of French — except, perhaps, ' Sacre bleu!' gen- 
eral conversation was restricted. 

" However, we at once sought the table, where we 
placed the general between Madame Livingston and 
Mademoiselle Choutard, an excellent English scholar, 
and with their assistance as interpreters he kept up a 
lively all-round chat with the entire company. Of our 
wines he seemed to fancy most a fine old Madeira, and 
remarked that he had not seen anything like it since 
Burr's dinner at Philadelphia in 1797, when he (Jack- 
son) was a senator. I well remembered that occasion, 
having been then a member of Congress from New 
York and one of Burr's guests. 

" ' So you have known Mr. Livingston a long time?* 
exclaimed Mademoiselle Choutard. 

143 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" ' Oh, yes, Miss Choutard,' he replied, ' I had the 
honor to know Mr. Livingston probably before the 
world was blessed by your existence !' 

" This was only one among a perfect fusillade of 
quick and apt compliments he bestowed with charming 
impartiality upon Madame Livingston and all her pretty 
guests. 

" When the dinner was over he spent half an hour 
or so with me in my library, and then returned to the 
drawing-room to take leave of the ladies, as he still had 
much work before him at headquarters that night. 
During the whole occasion the ladies, who thought of 
nothing but the impending invasion, wanted to talk 
about it almost exclusively. But he gently parried the 
subject. The only thing he said about it that I can 
remember was to assure madame that while possibly 
British soldiers might get near enough to see the church 
spires that pointed to heaven from the sanctuaries of 
their religion, none should ever get even a glimpse of 
the inner sanctuaries of their homes. I confess that I 
more than once marvelled at the unstudied elegance of 
his language and even more at the apparently spon- 
taneous promptness of his gallantry. 

" When he was gone the ladies no longer restrained 
their enthusiasm. ' Is that your savage Indian fighter?' 
they demanded in a chorus of their own language. ' Is 
this your rough frontier general? Shame upon you, 
Mr. Livingston, to deceive us so! He is a veritable 
preux chevalier!' And I must confess that madame 
was as voluble in her reproaches as any of the young 
ladies. I was glad to escape in a few minutes, when 
I went to join the general at headquarters, where we 
were busy until two a.m. with the preliminary work 
of the campaign." 

Parton has another version of the effect produced 
upon the company by Jackson's personality which he 

144 




ANDREW JACKSON 

From a miniature copied in 1858 from 
an original (whereabouts now unknown) 
painted in 1832. Copy in possession of 
Rev. A. H. Hord 



MANNERS 

received from a lady who was present : " He rose soon 
from the table and left the house with Mr. Livingston. 
In one chorus the young ladies exclaimed to their 
hostess : 

" ' Is this your backwoodsman? Why, madame, he is 

a prince !' " 

Parton also says : " Before leaving New Orleans 
General Jackson presented his friend Livingston with a 
miniature of himself, accompanying the gift with a note 
expressive of his appreciation of his aide-de-camp's ser- 
vices to himself and to the cause. This miniature, still 
in perfect preservation, is the earliest portrait of the 
general now in existence. It is so unlike the portraits 
familiar to the public, that not a man in the United 
States would recognize in it the features of General 
Jackson. Abundant, reddish-sandy hair falls low over 
the high, narrow forehead and almost hides it from 
view. The head is long, which Mr. Carlyle thinks one 
of the surest signs of talent. Eyes of a remarkably 
bright blue. Complexion fair, fresh, and ruddy. A 
mild, firm, plain, country face. He wears the full uni- 
form of a major-general of that day — blue coat with 
stiff upright collar to the ears, epaulets, yellow vest with 
upright collar and gilt buttons, ruffled shirt. The minia- 
ture reminds you of a good country deacon out for a 
day's soldiering. The still, set countenance wears what 
I will venture to call a Presbyterian expression. 

" The general did not forget the little daughter of his 
friend Livingston, but sent her a little brooch in a little 
note, both of which, I have heard, she still preserves. 
She wondered much, it is said, that the general should 
think of her in the hurry and bustle of his departure." 

When Aaron Burr was at the height of his popu- 
larity in the West he was the guest of Jackson at the 
Hermitage. A grand ball was given in his honor, and 
this is how Parton describes the advent of Burr and 
10 145 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Jackson : " There are still a few persons living at Nash- 
ville who remember this famous ball ; remember the 
hush and thrill attending the entrance of Colonel Burr, 
accompanied by General Jackson in the uniform of a 
major-general; and how the company lined the sides of 
the room, and looked intently on while the courtliest 
men in the world made the circuit of the apartment, 
General Jackson introducing his guest with singular 
grace and emphasis. It was a question with the ladies 
which of the two was the finer gentleman." 

I presume there is no doubt as to the elegance of 
Burr's manner or the charm of his personality, and that 
Jackson could even approach him is remarkable. Here 
is another testimonial as to how the people of Nashville 
loved their hero. " Mr. Monroe visited Nashville 
during his Presidency, when General Jackson figured 
conspicuously among those who welcomed and escorted 
the President. At the grand ball given him at Nashville 
General Jackson and Mr. Monroe entered the ballroom 
arm-in-arm, the general in his newest uniform, tower- 
ing far above the little President. On the other side of 
the President walked General Carroll, who was also a 
man of lofty stature. ' Ah !' whispered one of the 
ladies present, ' how our general does surpass everyone 
• — how he does throw everyone into the shade !' — a senti- 
ment that was most cordially assented to by all of the 
little circle to whom it was addressed." 

And here is another feminine view of him after he 
was elevated to the Presidency : " The general's ap- 
pearance has so often and correctly been described, that 
it would seem almost unnecessary to touch upon it here; 
but it will do no harm to give my impressions of him. 
Picture to yourself a military-looking man, above the 
ordinary height, dressed plainly, but with great neat- 
ness ; dignified and grave, — I had almost said stern, — 
but always courteous and affable, with keen, searching 

146 



MANNERS 

eyes, iron-gray hair, standing stiffly up from an expan- 
sive forehead, a face somewhat furrowed by care and 
time and expressive of deep thought and active intellect, 
and you have before you General Jackson who has lived 
in my memory for thirty years." 

Niles in his famous Weekly Register thus describes 
him : " In society he is kind, frank, unaffected, and 
hospitable, endowed with much natural grace and polite- 
ness, without the mechanical gentility and artificial, 
flimsy polish to be found in fashionable life." 

Daniel Webster says of him at the time when he was 
first a candidate for the Presidency : " General Jack- 
son's manners are more presidential than those of any 
of the candidates. He is grave, mild, and reserved. My 
wife is for him decidedly. He is a true man and will 
do good to his country in that situation." 

Goodrich, in his " Recollections," thus places the gen- 
eral in contrast with John Quincy Adams, who certainly 
by birth and breeding was entitled to be ranked with 
the aristocracy of the land, whatever coldness of man- 
ner he may have assumed. The reference is to the first 
meeting between the two, when Adams, who had re- 
ceived less electoral votes than Jackson, had been elected 
President over his leading competitor by the House of 
Representatives because not one of the candidates re- 
ceived a majority. 

" I shall pass over other individuals present, only 
noting an incident which respects the two persons in the 
assembly who most of all others engrossed the thoughts 
of the visitors — Mr. Adams, the elect ; General Jackson, 
the defeated. It chanced in the course of the evening 
that these two persons, involved in the throng, ap- 
proached each other from opposite directions, yet with- 
out knowing it. Suddenly, as they were almost together, 
the persons around, seeing what was to happen, by a sort 
of instinct stepped aside and left them face to face. 

147 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Mr. Adams was by himself; General Jackson had a 
large, handsome lady on his arm. They looked at each 
other for a moment, and then General Jackson moved 
forward, and, reaching out his long arm, said : ' How 
do you do, Mr. Adams? I give you my left hand, for 
the right, as you see, is devoted to the fair. I hope you 
are very well, sir.' All this was gallantly and heartily 
said and done. Mr. Adams took the general's hand 
and said with chilling coldness, ' Very well, sir ; I hope 
General Jackson is well !' It was curious to see the 
Western planter, the Indian fighter, the stern soldier, 
who had written his country's glory in the blood of the 
enemy at New Orleans, genial and gracious in the 
midst of a court, while the old courtier and diplomat was 
stifif, rigid, cold as a statue ! The personal character 
of these two individuals was, in fact, well expressed in 
that chance meeting; the gallantry, the frankness, and 
the heartiness of the one, which captivated all ; the 
coldness, the distance, the self-concentration of the 
other, which repelled all." 

Another view of the situation more favorable to the 
New Englander is also preserved by Parton : " General 
Jackson, we were pleased to observe," wrote an editor 
present, " was among the earliest of those who took 
the hand of the President, and their looks and deport- 
ment towards each other were a rebuke to that bitterness 
of party spirit which can see no merit in a rival and 
feel no joy in the honor of a competitor." 

In truth, Jackson was quite equal to any social situa- 
tion in which he found himself. Writes Elson : " He 
was not in the least overawed in the presence of the 
great audience that now stood before him ; his manner 
revealed no tendency to cringe, nor was it marred with 
a taint of bravado. ' His manner was faultless,' writes 
Thompson, who was not his political friend, in his 
' Recollections of Sixteen Presidents,' ' not strained, 

148 



MANNERS 

but natural. There was no exhibition of pride or os- 
tentation — no straining after effect or false show.' The 
ceremonies over, a great public reception with refresh- 
ments was held at the White House, and the rabble had 
full sway. They trampled the fine carpets with their 
muddy boots, stood on chairs and upholstered furniture, 
and among other things smashed an immense costly 
chandelier. ' Let the boys have a good time for once 
in four years,' said Jackson — and nothing he ever said 
gives a deeper insight into the cause of his popularity." 
Yet society was not always pleasant to Jackson. Wit- 
ness the following in his own words written on the 
sixteenth of March : 

" Yesterday being my birthday, and having entered upon my 
fifty-eighth year, I had a few friends to dine with me, and the 
evening was spent agreeably. Thus I have entered my fifty- 
eighth year. How I may end is for Providence to decide. To- 
day, at eleven o'clock a.m., I was notified by the President to 
attend him, that he might present me with the medal voted by 
Congress on the twenty-seventh of February, 1815. Accord- 
ingly, attended by Major Eaton, General Cobb, and Mr. E. 
Livingston, I waited upon him, when, in the presence of the 
heads of the department, the ladies of the heads of the depart- 
ments, the ladies of the Executive head, cum multis alios [so 
in the original], in due f-OTm''and pomp it was presented. Of 
all things I hate to speak of myself, and these parades and 
pomps are most disagreeable to me ; you will see it all printed ; 
and to that I refer you." 

" Many years afterwards Josiah Quincy, member of a 
committee to receive President Jackson on his visit to 
Boston, was in like manner astonished at his urbanity 
and grace. He had the dignity that goes with entire 
simplicity of nature, and the ease that comes from un- 
consciousness of self," says John Fiske. 

There is another side to the picture. Gallatin's 
famous remark about his appearance when he came first 
to Washington as the representative of Tennessee has 

149 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

been often quoted and has as often been disputed ; and 
Jefferson's allegation that Jackson never finished a 
speech because he would get so choked with rage that 
he was unable to articulate distinctly cannot be passed 
over. Various attempts have been made to disprove or 
discredit or explain away these statements. In view of 
the testimony already given they are not of great im- 
portance. However, that the other side may have its 
hearing I append Sumner's comment on Gallatin's state- 
ment, and whatever else he is, Sumner is no great 
admirer or friend of Jackson. 

" Gallatin recalled him years afterwards as * a tall, 
lank, uncouth-looking personage, with long locks of 
hair hanging over his face; and a cue down his back 
tied in an eel-skin ; his dress singular, his manners and 
deportment that of a rough backwoodsman.' Jeflferson 
said of him in 1824: 'When I was President of the 
Senate he was a senator, and he could never speak on 
account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen 
him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage.' 
There is, however, ample testimony that Jackson, later 
in life, was distinguished and elegant in his bearing 
when he did not afifect roughness and inelegance, and 
that he was able to command encomiums upon his man- 
ners from the best bred ladies in the country." 

One of the charges oftenest brought against Jackson 
was that of vulgarity, nor can it be denied that in 
many of the public functions in the White House in 
Jackson's time a shocking degree of license prevailed 
when aforetime these affairs had been characterized by 
the highest dignity and decorum. Nor can Jackson be 
freed from responsibility therefor. Mrs. Martha J. 
Lamb corroborates Elson, quoted above, and shows that 
the disgraceful practices of the beginning continued 
throughout Jackson's two terms: 

" President Jackson, towards the close of his adminis- 

150 



" JACKSONIAN VULGARIT :>: ' 

tration, abolished supper-tables at the ' drawing-rooms,' 
which had hitherto been a special feature of such enter- 
tainments. The growing population and the vast 
crowds attending them rendered the custom of offering 
refreshments unsupportable, and it has never since been 
resumed. It is said that on the occasion of one levee, 
Sir Charles Vaughan [the British minister] rolled up 
to the palace in full court dress to pay his respects to 
the President, but he saw such a crowd of all sorts 
and descriptions pushing into the Executive Mansion 
that he called out roughly to his coachman to drive 
home, ' This is too democratic for me !' " 

And in this connection these citations from Sargent's 
" Recollections" are pertinent. Sargent professes to be, 
and I have no doubt he was, an eyewitness to what he 
describes : " The President was literally pursued by a 
motley concourse of people, riding, running, helter- 
skelter, striving who should first gain admittance into 
the Executive Mansion, where it was understood that 
refreshments were to be distributed. The halls were 
filled with a disorderly rabble scrambling for the re- 
freshments designed for the drawing-rooms ! the people 
forcing their way into the saloons, mingling with the 
foreign ministers and citizens surrounding the Presi- 
dent. China and glass to the amount of several thou- 
sands of dollars were broken in the struggle to get at 
the ices and cakes, though punch and other drinkables 
had been carried out in tubs and buckets to the people. 

" A profusion of refreshments had been provided. 
Orange-punch by barrels full were made ; but, as the 
waiters opened the door to bring it out, a rush would 
be made, the glasses broken, the pails of liquor upset, 
and the most painful confusion prevailed. To such a 
degree was this carried, that wine and ice-creams could 
not be brought out to the ladies, and tubs of punch were 
taken from the lower story into the garden to lead off 



/ 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the crowd from the rooms. ... It was mortifying to 
see men, with boots heavy with mud, standing on the 
damask-satin-covered chairs and sofas." 

" The President was visited at the palace by immense 
crowds of all sorts of people, from the highest and most 
polished down to the most vulgar and gross in the 
nation. I never saw such a mixture. The reign of 
King Mob seemed triumphant." * 

Of course, the laxity should never have been allowed, 
and when it is considered it is abundant justification for 
the term, " Jacksonian vulgarity." But it must be borne 
in mind that Jackson himself — personally, that is — was 
not a vulgar man, as the misleading phrase seems to 
imply, and that he allowed reprehensible practices de- 
liberately. It will be seen that Jackson was the Presi- 
dent of the people, the plain, common people, in a sense 
in which no previous President had been, and that fact 
and that peculiar relationship in which he fancied he 
stood to the democracy — " the unwashed and unter- 
rified" — seemed to him to require a suspension of the 
rules. A grave mistake, for the more the ordinary 
social barriers are levelled the more necessity for de- 
corum. 

I close this chapter with a reminiscence of Jackson 
for which Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston was authority: 
" The late Harriet Lane Johnston," said a New York 
woman who was an intimate friend of the former mis- 
tress of the White House, " having lived so long with 
her statesman uncle, James Buchanan, had many inter- 
esting reminiscences of him and his times. One of 



* Scenes similar in character, if not so great in extent, have 
been enacted, not once but many times, in modern social 
functions in Washington and elsewhere, I have been credibly 
informed. And it is impossible to imagine anything more vul- 
gar and disgraceful than the modern mobs attracted to churches 
by " fashionable" weddings, and even funerals ! 

152 



" JACKSONIAN VULGARITY" 

them which she was fond of relating was an incident 
told to her by Mr. Buchanan of the social career of 
General Jackson while he was President. Mr. Bu- 
chanan was in the United States Senate at the time. 

" As Mrs. Johnston related the incident, a famous 
Baltimore lady, one of the leaders in society of that 
day and related to an English family of title and dis- 
tinction, had spent a long time in England during Jack- 
son's administration, her family connections admitting 
her to the inner circles of aristocratic and royal society. 
George IV was then King, and a short time before this 
lady left England to return to America she was pre- 
sented to him. He confided to her a message to Presi- 
dent Jackson which he requested her to deliver in 
person. 

" The reputation his political enemies had made for 
Jackson was such that the lady was most unfavorably 
impressed, never having met the rugged old soldier. In 
fact, the idea of ' Jacksonian vulgarity' was quite the 
popular one, and there were many stories of the general's 
offensive application of it in his social as well as business 
contact with visitors. 

" Consequently this high-bred message-bearer from 
the King of England was very much disinclined to a 
personal interview with this President of boorish repu- 
tation, but, having undertaken to carry out the wishes 
of the King, she determined to undergo the trial, pre- 
pared to be greatly shocked at what she might see and 
hear. Being well acquainted with James Buchanan, 
she begged him to accompany her on her mission and 
introduce her to the President. 

" ' My uncle escorted the lady to the White House,' 
Mrs. Johnston related merrily, ' and leaving her in the 
reception-room he went to the President's room to ar- 
range for the interview. 

" ' He found the President alone. His face was cov- 

153 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

ered with a bristling beard of several days' growth. He 
was wearing a dressing-gown which was very much 
soiled and greatly the worse for past service. He was 
smoking an old clay pipe. 

" ' It was a disheartening moment for Mr. Buchanan, 
for to present the refined and elegant lady to the Presi- 
dent of the United States in such attire seemed to him 
but little better than a national disgrace. He told the 
President about the distinguished woman who had come 
to seek an introduction to him, on an errand from the 
King of England, and made bold to say, — 

But, General, you ought not to see her without 
making an appropriate toilet." 

The grim old soldier took his pipe out of his 
mouth, stretched himself to his full height, shot a fiery 
look at his audacious social prompter from beneath his 
shaggy eyebrows, and exclaimed with some forceful ad- 
juncts of language that may as well not be repeated. 

Buchanan, I knew a man once who succeeded 
admirably in getting along simply by minding his own 
business !" 

He told my uncle to go back and wait with the 
lady and he would see her presently. Mr. Buchanan 
returned to the reception-room and awaited the Presi- 
dent's coming in a torture of suspense. 

" ' In a remarkably short time General Jackson en- 
tered the room. He was neatly shaven and in plain but 
correct attire. A more courtly and dignified appearance, 
my uncle said, could not well be imagined, and he was 
so astounded at the change in Jackson's appearance and 
manner that he almost forgot what he was there for. 

" ' He introduced the lady, however, and retired to 
await the termination of the interview, which, from what 
she said to him, he felt that she was eager to make 
as short as possible. He was, therefore, surprised when 
more than an hour had passed and she was still talking 

154 



" JACKSONIAN VULGARITY" 

with the man she had dreaded to meet as one but httle 
better than a wildcat. 

" ' She appeared at last, escorted to the door by the 
President. Mr. Buchanan said she was positively 
radiant. He handed her into her carriage, and asked 
her what she thought of the grim and much-abused 
Jackson. 

" ' " I am captivated !" she replied. " I never so en- 
joyed an hour. I have been at all the courts of Europe, 
and I can truly say that at none of them have I ever seen 
a man who in elegance of manners could excel General 
Jackson. While intensely dignified, they were so kind 
that my dread disappeared in an instant, and before I 
knew it I was captivated. It will never do for anyone 
to charge General Jackson with vulgarity in my presence 
again !" 

" ' As long as my uncle lived,' Mrs. Johnston was 
wont to say, ' he delighted to relate, which he did always 
with great relish, and particularly if it gave him oppor- 
tunity to rebuke any ill-natured reference to Jacksonian 
vulgarity, what befel him and his apprehensive com- 
panion from that interview with Andrew Jackson.' " 



155 



VIII 

RELATIONS WITH HIS MOTHER AND WIFE 

A FAIR deduction as to a man's private character may 
be made more easily, perhaps, by examining into his 
relations with women, and, incidentally, with children, 
than in any other way. So many men of great abilities, 
of brilliant talents amounting to genius, who have done 
the State some service in their time, and whose public 
careers are deservedly held in honored remembrance 
have failed to attain to a moral stature corresponding, 
on account of their relations with women. Genius is 
usually said to be over-sexed, and transcendent ability, 
unless it manifests itself in an asceticism the product of 
a rare constitutional coldness, indifference to women, or 
an enforced subjugation of natural desire by an im- 
perious will, is usually associated with a deeply sensuous 
nature. Heat is a more efficient instrument than cold. 
The earth was molten before the Ice Age and will be 
again, perhaps. Your truly great are rarely adiaphorous 
to the opposite sex. Witnesses in history to the truth 
of this are abundant. Environment, customs of times, 
an understandable disposition to overlook the errors of 
greatness, and a certain tendency on the part of great- 
ness to consider itself superior to laws of simpler lives 
have brought about such a state of affairs as is not 
pleasant to contemplate in the lives of many great men. 
Especially is this true in foreign countries where educa- 
tional ideas differ from ours, where habits and customs 
sometimes abhorrent to us prevail, and where life is 
accordingly much more complex and infinitely less 
simple than in our own. Yet in our own country there 
are many cases in point. 

IS6 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

Jackson, however, was the purest of men. From his 
youth up no woman's cheek ever burned with shame at 
the thought of him. Towards women and children, and 
in general towards those weaker than himself, he was 
gentleness, consideration, and kindness itself. He had 
a respect for women the depth of which can hardly be 
exaggerated. It was not a respect acquired by mental 
effort. It was not born of any bitter experience. It 
did not spring from any revulsion of feeling towards a 
bad woman. It was an ingrained part of his nature. It 
was developed, as such things always are developed, 
first by the example and teaching of a good mother, and 
next by long and intimate association with a good wife. 
The man who has experienced but one of these good 
things is but half a man. 

Jackson was singularly blessed in both relationships, 
as a son and as a husband. His memory of his mother 
was as sweet as it was profound, as affectionate as it 
was abiding. Although she died when he was still a 
small boy, she had sufficiently impressed herself upon 
his consciousness for him never to forget her. Sense 
of family relationship was very deep in Jackson. 

Jackson could never speak of his father without visi- 
ble emotion. " Francis P. Blair used to relate that some 
years after he became President he tried to locate exactly 
his father's grave at Waxhaws, with the intention of 
placing there a suitable memento, but it could not be 
distinguished from other unmarked mounds in the old 
churchyard. ' I have heard him,' said Mr. Blair, ' re- 
mark that his father died like a hero in battle, fighting 
for his wife and babies, fighting an uphill battle against 
poverty and adversity such as no one in our time could 
comprehend. When asked if he had ever visited the 
scenes of his childhood,' pursued Mr. Blair, ' he would 
say, " No ! I couldn't bear to. It would suggest nothing 
but bereavement, grief, and suffering of those dearest 

157 



1 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

to me. I couldn't stand it. It would break me 
down !" ' " 

His father died before he was born, yet what he felt 
for him was but faint compared to his regard for his 
mother. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Lee, a daughter of Frank P. Blair, 
was often, as a girl, a guest at the Hermitage and 
at the White House. " Once," she writes, " when copy- 
ing a letter for him I protested against his spelling 
which three different ways on one page and wanted him 
to alter it, but he would not, and said laughingly that 
he could make himself understood, and that as I was 
a copyist, I had better spell it as I found it; then he 
added more seriously that at the age when most people 
learn to spell he was working for his living and helping 
the best of mothers." 

Well does Parton say : " He deeply loved his mother, 
and held her memory sacred to the end of his life. 
He used often to speak of the courage she had displayed 
when left without a protector in the wilderness, and 
would sometimes clinch a remark or an argument by 
saying, ' That I learned from my good old mother.' " 

He once said, in speaking of his mother to General 
Eaton, " One of the last injunctions given me by her 
was never to institute a suit for assault or battery or 
for defamation ; never to wound the feelings of others, 
nor suffer my own to be outraged ; these were her 
words of admonition to me; I remember them well, 
and have never failed to respect them ; my settled course 
through life has been to bear them in mind, and never 
to insult or wantonly to assail the feelings of anyone ; 
and yet many conceive me to be a most ferocious animal, 
insensible to moral duty, and regardless of the laws 
both of God and man." 

Nearly thirty-four years after his mother's death, 
while he was disbanding the army with which he had 

158 



O 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

won the battle of New Orleans, on the fifteenth of 
March, 1815, which happened to be his birthday, he was 
celebrating the anniversary in camp with three members 
of his staff, Majors Eaton and Lewis and Captain But- 
ler. During the festivities his mind reverted to his 
mother, and of her he spoke to them as follows : 

" Gentlemen, how I wish she could have lived to see 
this day. There never was a woman like her. She 
was as gentle as a dove and as brave as a lioness. Al- 
most her last words to me when about to start for 
Charleston on the errand of mercy that cost her life 
were : ' Andrew, if I should not see you again, I wish 
you to remember and treasure up some things I have 
already said to you : In this world you will have to 
make your own way. To do that you must have friends. 
You can make friends by being honest, and you can 
keep them by being steadfast. You must keep in mind 
that friends worth having will in the long run expect 
as much from you as they give to you. To forget an 
obligation or be ungrateful for a kindness is a base 
crime — not merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime. 
Men guilty of it sooner or later must suffer the penalty. 
In personal conduct be always polite, but never obsequi- 
ous. No one will respect you more than you esteem 
yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without 
yielding to imposition, but sustain your manhood always. 
Never bring a suit at law for assault or battery or for 
defamation. The law affords no remedy for such out- 
rages that can satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never 
wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton out- 
rage upon your own feelings. If ever you have to vin- 
dicate your feelings or defend your honor, do it calmly. 
If angry at first, wait till your wrath cools before you 
proceed.' 

" Gentlemen, her last words have been the law of 
my life. When the tidings of her death reached me I at 

159 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

first could not believe it. When I finally realized the 
truth I felt utterly alone. At that moment I had not a 
relation in the world of close kin by the name of Jack- 
son. The Crawfords, in whose house I grew up, had 
been kind to me, but, after all, they were not my own 
and I was not their own. I was grateful to them be- 
yond expression but did not love them. Besides, I was 
almost fifteen years old and felt that I could not rea- 
sonably burden them longer. Yes, I was alone. With 
that feeling I started to make my own way. The death 
of all my relations had made me heir to part of the estate 
of my deceased grandfather, Elugh Jackson, of Carrick- 
fergus ; but that was small, not over three hundred or 
four hundred pounds sterling, and it was tied up in 
Charleston in the hands of the administrator, Mr. Bar- 
ton, at whose house my mother died. It did me little 
good, because I was not prudent with it when it came to 
me. As things turned out, I might about as well have 
been penniless, as I was already homeless and friendless. 
The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after 
all, the only capital I had to start in life with, and on that 
capital I have made my way." 

" These few precepts in thy memory !" the general 
might have added if he had been familiar with the wise 
advice of old Polonius. 

It was a fortunate thing for General Jackson that he 
had such a capital on which to make his way. And his 
love for his mother made him respect all women. So 
patent and open was his regard for women, merely be- 
cause they were women, that all women who came in 
contact with him admitted the charm of the man. Fiske 
says " One of the most winsome features of Jackson's 
character was his sincere and chivalrous respect for 
women. He was also peculiarly susceptible to the feel- 
ing of keen sympathy for persons in distress," the last 
being the natural corollary of the knight-errantry of 

1 60 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

the first. Indeed, Jackson reminds me in many ways of 
a knight-errant. Swift to take up anybody's quarrel, 
eager to redress anybody's wrongs, anxious to espouse 
anybody's cause that seemed to crave a defender, — and 
more often than not without due examination as to the 
merits of the question at issue, — all he needed was a 
sword and spear, and possibly a Rosinante ! 

That he had such a tendency to respect and serve all 
women is undoubtedly due to his mother's influence and 
training. She must have been a remarkable woman to 
have left so great an impress in so short a time. Per- 
haps had she lived she might have moderated and re- 
strained him and have prevented some of the extrava- 
gant courses into which he was frequently led. After 
his mother the feminine influence to which this phase of 
his character is most due was that of his wife. Yet his 
marriage introduced him to more troubles than any 
other act in his impetuous life : troubles entirely due to 
his own lack of care, to his haste, to his invariable habit 
of doing what he liked without counting the cost or 
v/ithout considering the consequences. His desire to 
achieve a thing usually made him more or less indif- 
ferent to the method. More often than not the end 
justified the means, although I do not wish to be mis- 
understood as implying that he used that maxim in the 
popular sense. According to his lights, he was always 
the man of honor and the gentleman. But if he saw 
anything to be done, he went about it without regard 
to the ordinary course of procedure and did it — some- 
times unconsciously doing more damage by the way 
than he hoped or intended to repair. 

Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson was as pure and 
sweet a woman as ever lived, yet there was a cloud 
upon her marriage title, at least in the minds of her 
enemies — Jackson's enemies, rather — which was never 
removed, and the cruel and brutal attacks upon her in 
II i6i 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the campaign which brought Jackson to the Presidency 
brought her to the grave. Most of the duels that Jack- 
son fought — the serious ones, that is — were in defence 
of his wife's reputation. The one offence which he 
could neither condone, forget, nor forgive was an asper- 
sion upon her character. 

He had a fierce and bloody affray with Senator Ben- 
ton in which he was severely wounded, yet the quarrel, 
which was a foolish one, was afterwards composed. 
The two became the warmest friends. Benton was the 
great defender of Jackson's policy in the Senate, and 
without him the thorny path of the overbearing Presi- 
dent would have been a still more difficult one to tread. 
The services that Benton performed for Jackson can 
hardly be overestimated ; still, Jackson would have died 
rather than have accepted any service from Benton or 
have taken his hand in friendship or bestowed the least 
notice upon him, had the Benton quarrel been like 
Dickinson's and some other quarrels, about the reputa- 
tion of Mrs. Jackson. That was, to the fierce, stern 
soldier, who was at the same time a tender and ardent 
lover, the unpardonable sin against his affections. 

When Jackson went to Nashville he boarded at the 
house of a widow named Donelson, who had been the 
wife of one of the famous pioneers of Kentucky. With 
Mrs. Donelson lived her daughter Rachel, " a black- 
eyed, black-haired brunette, as bold and handsome a lass, 
the best story-teller, the sprightliest company, the most 
dashing horse-woman, as lived in the western country." 
Rachel Donelson was married to Lewis Robards. Ro- 
bards was away most of the time and was a man of 
intensely jealous disposition. He and his wife were 
very unhappy. Among other objects of suspicion Ro- 
bards included Jackson, although there was not the 
slightest evidence that the conduct of Mrs. Robards and 
Jackson had been anything other than highly exemplary, 

162 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

So insane was the husband's jealousy that he appHed 
for and received from Virginia, which then had legal 
jurisdiction over what is now Tennessee, a decree of 
divorce. At that time divorces were granted only by 
the Legislature upon proof of adultery. That is, the 
act of the Legislature granting a divorce did not become 
operative until the conditions under which it was granted 
had been established — i.e., until the crime had been 
proved ; so that the mere passage of the act did not in 
itself constitute a divorce, and the divorce so decreed 
did not become operative until the crime had been proved 
before a court. 

Jackson and Mrs. Robards seem to have been under 
some misapprehension as to the law, or else the infor- 
mation they received was not accurate, for they sup- 
posed, since the decree had been granted, that Robards 
had actually secured the divorce and that Mrs. Robards 
was legally free. It seems to have been so given out, 
and it is more than hinted that Robards himself, per- 
haps in despair of obtaining the required proof in any 
other way, spread the report broadcast. At any rate, 
after a brief courtship, Jackson and Mrs. Robards were 
married at Natchez, Mississippi, in November, 1791. 
No doubt Jackson, who was deeply in love, was very 
anxious to get married, and no doubt Mrs. Robards, who 
reciprocated his affections, was equally anxious. There 
is no doubt, either, that the marriage was a suitable one 
and advantageous for both young people. Yet it was 
criminally careless of Jackson to have gone through a 
marriage ceremony with the young woman without 
making himself absolutely certain that she had a right 
to enter into marriage with him. The blame of the 
false position in which Mrs. Robards found herself rests 
entirely upon Jackson's shoulders, and the ensuing 
trouble is due absolutely to him. Jackson was a law- 
yer, and it was his business to know the law ; nor could 

163 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

he have been unaware of that well-known principle that 
ignorance of the law is no excuse. Nevertheless, it is 
obvious that Jackson was at first fully persuaded of the 
legality of his marriage with Mrs. Robards and that her 
husband had actually secured a divorce instead of what 
only amounted to a permissive decree. 

Robards had been extremely adroit in playing his 
game. So soon as his wife's marriage to Jackson was 
announced he found no difficulty in proving his main 
contention, which, by the way, would have been im- 
possible before, and by the terms of the legislative en- 
actment he at once got his divorce. Thereupon the 
whole unedifying story came out, of course. Jackson 
hastened to rectify his carelessness by at once remarry- 
ing Mrs. Robards, in January, 1794, so that thereafter 
she was legally — as it is not a stretch of the truth to say 
she had before been morally — his wife. Yet try as he 
might, he had always to fight against scandal, which 
was invariably busy with his wife's fair name. Natur- 
ally, although he did not admit it, he realized that he 
only was responsible for the situation, and he was ever 
ready to defend her at the pistol's point. 

His quarrel with Sevier came to a head because 
Sevier said slightingly that he did not know anything 
Jackson had done to distinguish himself but run away 
with another man's wife. His famous duel with Dick- 
inson, one of the most dramatic and thrilling encounters 
in early American history, which abounds with such 
affairs, was ostensibly due to other causes, a difference 
about a race-horse, political antagonism, and so on ; 
really it arose from his resolve to punish Dickinson for 
certain slighting remarks he had made about his wife. 
Dickinson, young, able, and ambitious, saw in Jackson a 
political rival whose control of the situation in Tennes- 
see barred him from preferment, and he wished to re- 
move the man who stood in his way. These motives 

164 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

were sufficiently patent in the politics of that day to 
foster Dickinson's determination to kill Jackson, and the 
old slander against Mrs. Jackson was invoked to provide 
a cause. But Dickinson's resolution was nothing to that 
of the man who faced him. Jackson was determined to 
kill Dickinson because Dickinson had slandered his wife. 
In discussing the arrangements for the coming duel with 
his second, General Overton, Jackson said he would sus- 
tain Dickinson's fire, as he knew that his antagonist was 
a quick shot and he could not cope with him in speed. 
" How," asked General Overton, " if he wounds you 
seriously, even mortally, will you return his fire?" "I 
will hit him," said Jackson with that fierce determina- 
tion characteristic of him, " if he shoots me in the 
brain." This is not bravado or gasconade, it is simply 
an evidence" of his intensity of purpose — and we can 
hardly escape the conclusion that he would have hit 
Dickinson even with a bullet in his brain ! 

Dickinson did fire first, struck Jackson in the breast, 
but such was the iron control of the man that he gave 
no sign of the dangerous wound he had received, for he 
deliberately raised his pistol and mortally wounded 
Dickinson. He then actually turned and walked away 
from the spot out of sight of the dying man, not until 
then disclosing the fact that he also was terribly 
wounded. He never got over that wound either. Years 
after, in Washington, Parton relates this incident: 

" The hall lamp of the hotel having been extinguished, 
the general went stumbling upstairs to his apartment in 
the dark. Upon reaching the top, he supposed that he 
had yet to ascend one stair, and made an awkward step 
forward and nearly fell. The viscera which had been 
displaced by Dickinson's ball and falsely healed were 
again severed from the breastbone and the internal 
wound thus reopened. The general staggered to his 
room, and lay for more than a week quite disabled. 

165 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

He had several attacks of bleeding at the lungs, and 
remained subject to such attacks during the rest of his 
life. Many times he was brought by them to the verge 
of the grave, and the affection was probably aggravated 
by his mode of treating it. When threatened with an 
attack, he would lay bare his arm, bandage it, take his 
penknife from his pocket, call his servant to hold the 
bowl, and bleed himself freely. Often, indeed, during 
his Presidency he performed this operation in the night 
without any assistance." 

The wedded life of the Jacksons was, nevertheless, a 
very happy one, and the home they built after they had 
grown older was one of the most delightful in the State. 
" Mrs. Jackson was a famous housewife and delightful 
hostess. By this time she was past forty ; short in 
stature, stout, matronly, rosy in complexion, and inde- 
scribably winning in manner and conversation. Never 
was the Hermitage without a guest, and most of the 
time it was crowded. Jackson and his wife carried the 
old-fashioned Southern hospitality to an extreme. They 
did not wish their guests to be simply visitors, but made 
them temporary members of the family." There was 
lots of merriment and fun of a homely sort, pleasant to 
recall, in the Hermitage, while the famous couple were 
still young, which would have made a real hermit hold 
up his hands in horror but which the inmates greatly 
enjoyed. 

" It is pleasant, too, to know that Mrs. Jackson was 
fond of, and excelled in, the hearty diversions of the 
frontier, particularly in the vigorous, old-fashioned 
dances. She was a short and stout woman. The gen- 
eral was tall and slender. The spectacle is said to have 
been extremely curious when they danced a reel to- 
gether, which they often did, a reel of the olden time 
that would shake to pieces the frequenters of modern 
ballrooms. The time came when she imbibed opinions 

i66 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

which placed a ban upon diversions which are "both inno- 
cent and preservative of innocence. But in earUer 
years she was a gay, merry, natural, human being; 
happy herself, and a source of happiness to all around 
her." 

Parton preserves this pleasing little anecdote of the 
democratic regime at the Hermitage : " Before the 
evening devotions began the wife of the general over- 
seer entered the apartment. Mrs. Jackson rose and 
made room for her on the sofa upon which she had her- 
self been sitting, and treated her with as much con- 
sideration as though she had been a lady of the first 
distinction. The wife of the doctor of divinity lifted 
her orthodox eyebrows at this proceeding and addressed 
to the lady who sat next to her an inquiring stare. ' Oh, 
yes,' whispered the lady thus interrogated, ' that is the 
way here: and if she had not done it, the general 
would.' " 

With advancing years came a waning of Mrs. Jack- 
son's charms. She grew short in stature, stout in form, 
and florid in complexion, in spite of her dark eyes. Her 
dark hair became threaded with gray. " The benignity 
of her expression," says Benton, " was indescribable ; 
but it was no more than the radiation of her goodness. 
Providence had denied her offspring of her own, but 
she was a mother to all who knew her. She was, of all 
women ever created, the wife for the man who was 
her husband. My memory of her covers a period of 
twenty-five years, from my earliest visit to Nashville 
until her death. In her house I felt at home next to 
that of my own mother. She lived more for others and 
less for herself than anyone I have known. 

" When she came to Robertson's Station, or ' French 
Salt Spring,' in 1780, at the age of thirteen, with her 
father, Colonel John Donelson, she was literally the 
pioneer girl of the Cumberland Valley. To her last 

167 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

hour she was the pioneer woman. Her frankness, her 
sincerity, her benevolence, her charity, her patience, and, 
above all, her simple piety, survived all the storms of 
her husband's career, all the adulations that success 
showered upon him and her. She lived to see him 
elected President, but not to share with him the honors 
or the burdens of that great office. I have sometimes 
thought that General Jackson might have been a more 
equable tenant of the White House than he was had she 
been spared to share it with him. At all events, she was 
the only human being on earth who ever possessed the 
power to swerve his mighty will or soothe his fierce 
temper." 

Yet, as Parton says : " It is remarkable that General 
Jackson, though himself an adept in drawing-room arts 
and at home in elegant society, was blind to the homely 
bearing and country manners of his wife. He put great 
honor upon her at New Orleans, in all companies, on 
all occasions, giving proof to the world that this bonnie 
brown wife of his was to him the dearest and the most 
revered of human beings. The ladies of the city soon 
gathered around her and made much of her. Among 
other marks of regard they presented her with that valu- 
able but rather showy set of topaz jewelry which ap- 
pears on her person in the portrait that hangs still in 
the parlor of the Hermitage. To the general, also, the 
ladies presented a valuable diamond pin. * The world 
heaps many honors upon me,' he said to the ladies, ' but 
none is greater than this.' " 

The general's devotion to Mrs. Jackson, proverbial as 
it was at home, had never been so constantly or so 
lavishly exhibited as in the stately affairs of polished 
New Orleans. Debonair as he had been in his asso- 
ciation with the Creole belles, he never missed an op- 
portunity to demonstrate that he considered the short, 
stout, beaming matron at his side the perfection of her 

i68 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

sex and far and away the most charming woman in the 
world. Even the cynical Nolte, who so far forgot the 
chivalry naturally to be expected of a brave soldier and 
a noted duellist as to indulge in some rather amusing 
comments upon " Lady Jackson's" appearance on the 
dancing-floor, was constrained to say that the " general's 
devotion to his simple-mannered and homely-gaited 
spouse showed in him a quality that his official bearing 
led few to suspect. It was much remarked that, what- 
ever he might be on the battle-field, he must be a model 
husband at home." 

Another contemporary preserves this account of her : 
" Side by side by him stands a coarse-looking, stout, 
little old woman, whom you might easily mistake for his 
washerwoman, were it not for the marked attention he 
pays her and the love and admiration she manifests for 
him. Her eyes are bright, and express great kindness 
of heart ; her face is rather broad, her features plain ; 
her complexion so dark as almost to suggest a mingling 
of races in that climate where such things sometime 
occur. But, withal, her face is so good-natured and 
motherly that you immediately feel at ease with her, 
however shy you may be of the stately person by her 
side. Her figure is rather full, but loosely and care- 
lessly dressed, so that when she is seated she seems to 
settle into herself in a manner that is neither graceful 
nor elegant. I have seen such forms since then, and 
have thought I should like to experiment upon them 
with French corsets, to see what they would look like 
if they were gathered together into some permanent 
shape. This is Mrs. Jackson. I have heard my mother 
say that she could imagine that in her early youth, at 
the time the general yielded to her fascinations, she 
may have been a bright, sparkling brunette ; perhaps, 
may have even passed for a beauty. But being with- 
out any culture, and out of the way of refining in- 

169 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

fluences, she was, at the time we knew her, such as I 
have described. 

" Their affection for each other was of the tenderest 
kind. The general always treated her as if she were his 
pride and glory, and words can faintly describe her 
devotion to him. The Nashville Inn was at the time 
filled with celebrities, nearly all warm supporters of the 
general. The Stokes family of North Carolina were 
there, particular friends of his, and many other families 
whose names have escaped my memory. I well recol- 
lect to what disadvantage Mrs. Jackson appeared, with 
her dowdy fied figure, her inelegant conversation, and her 
total want of refinement, in the midst of this highly culti- 
vated group, and I recall very distinctly how the ladies 
of the Jackson party hovered near her at all times, 
apparently to save her from saying or doing anything 
which might do discredit to their idol. With all her dis- 
advantages in externals, I know she was really beloved. 
She was a truly good woman, the very soul of benevo- 
lence and kindness, and one almost overlooked her defi- 
ciencies in the knowledge of her intrinsic worth and her 
real goodness of heart. With a different husband, and 
under different circumstances, she might have appeared 
to greater advantage ; but there could not be a more 
striking contrast than in their case. And the strangest 
of it all was, that the general did not seem aware of it. 

" My father visited them at the Hermitage more than 
once. It was customary for the army officers to do 
this as a mark of respect to the general, and they fre- 
quently remained in their hospitable mansion several 
days at a time. The latch-string was always out, and 
all who visited them were made welcome and felt them- 
selves at home. I remember my father's telling an 
anecdote characteristic of Mrs. Jackson which im- 
pressed my young mind forcibly. After the evening 
meal at the Hermitage he and some other officers were 

170 



I 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

seated with the worthy couple at their ample fireplace. 
Mrs. Jackson, as was her custom, lighted her pipe, and 
having taken a whiff or two, handed it to my father, 
saying, ' Honey, won't you take a smoke ?' " 

The following letter from Mrs. Jackson, written from 
Washington, shows how far she changed her opinions 
with advancing years. She says : 

" The present moment is the first I can call my own since 
my arrival in this great city. Our journey, indeed, was 
fatiguing. We were twenty-seven days on the road, but no 
accident happened to us. My dear husband is in better health 
than when we came. We are boarding in the same house with 
the nation's guest, Lafayette. I am delighted with him. All 
the attentions, all the parties he goes to, appear to have no 
effect on him. In fact, he is an extraordinary man. He has a 
happy talent of knowing those he has once seen. For instance, 
when we first came to this house the general said he would go 
and pay the marquis the first visit. Both having the same 
desire, and at the same time, they met on the entry of the stairs. 
It was truly interesting. The emotion of Revolutionary feeling 
was aroused in them both. At Charleston General Jackson saw 
him on the field of battle * — the one a boy of twelve, the mar- 
quis twenty-three. He wears a wig, and is a little inclined to 
corpulency. He is very healthy, eats hearty, goes to every 
party, and that is every night. 

" To tell you of this city I would not do justice to the subject. 
The extravagance is in dressing and running to parties ; but 
I must say they regard the Sabbath, and attend preaching, for 
there are churches of every denomination and able ministers 
of the Gospel. We have been here two Sabbaths. The general 
and myself were both days at church. Mr. Baker is the pastor 
of the church we go to. He is a fine man, a plain, good 
preacher. We were waited on by two of Mr. Balche's elders, 
inviting us to take a pew in his church in Georgetown, but pre- 
vious to that I had an invitation to another. General Cole, 
Mary, Emily, and Andrew went to the Episcopal Church. 

" Oh my dear friend, how shall I get through this bustle. 
There are not less than fifty to one hundred persons calling 

* Mrs. Jackson's recollection is certainly at fault in this state- 
ment. 

171 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

in a day. My dear husband was unwell nearly the whole of 
our journey, but, thanks to our Heavenly Father, his health is 
improving. Still, his appetite is delicate, and company and 
business are oppressive, but I look unto the Lord, from whence 
comes all my comforts. I have the precious promise, and I 
know that my Redeemer liveth. 

" Don't be afraid of my giving away to these vain things. 
The apostle says, I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens 
me. The play-actors sent me a letter, requesting my counte- 
nance to them. No. A ticket to balls and parties. No, not one. 
Two dinings ; several times to drink tea. Indeed, Mr. Jackson 
encourages me in my course. He recommends it to me to be 
steadfast. I am going to-day to hear Mr. Summerfield. He 
preaches in the Methodist Church ; a very highly spoken of 
minister. Glory to God for the privilege ! Not a day or night 
but there is the church opened for prayer." 

During Jackson's second campaign for the Presi- 
dency, a campaign which was marked by a bitterness of 
personal attack which has hardly been paralleled even 
in some of the modern Presidential campaigns which 
are within memory, Jackson's marriage to Mrs. Ro- 
bards was made the target of an abuse as vile as it 
was untrue. For that matter even Jackson's mother 
was made the subject of slander. 

" The peculiar circumstances of his marriage, long 
forgotten, were paraded with the grossest exaggera- 
tions, to the sore grief of good Mrs. Jackson and to the 
general's unspeakable wrath. The mother, too, of Gen- 
eral Jackson was not permitted to rest quietly in her 
grave. Mrs. Jackson once found her husband in tears. 
Pointing to a paragraph reflecting on his mother, he 
said : ' Myself I can defend ; you I can defend ; but now 
they have assailed even the memory of my mother.' " 

" One of the newspapers which took the lead in these 
infamous attacks upon the reputation of Mrs. Jackson 
was the National Journal, published in Washington, 
which was said to be the especial organ of President 
Adams himself. So well satisfied of this was General 

172 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

Jackson, at least, that he refused to call on Mr. Adams 
(as it was thought in courtesy he should have done) 
when he reached Washington in February, 1829. He 
thought that a man who would permit a public journal 
which was under his control to assail the reputation of 
any respectable female, much less the wife of his rival 
and competitor for the first office in the world, was not 
entitled to the respect of any honorable man, and he 
would not, therefore, go near him. This was the reason 
why he did not call upon him, and not from a want of 
magnanimity or sense of what was due to the Chief 
Magistrate of the nation, as it was alleged by his ene- 
mies at the time." As to this opinion, whoever else 
may have been guilty, it is certain that no such despic- 
able conduct can be charged against Adams, who was 
cold as an iceberg, but a gentleman of the most refined 
and delicate honor everywher'^. 

These attacks undoubtedly hastened Mrs. Jackson's 
death. Writes Parton : " The health of Mrs. Jackson 
continued to be precarious during the whole of this 
period. Her disease was an affection of the heart, which 
was liable to be aggravated by excitement. She never 
approved of the general's running for office, and if now 
she wished him to succeed, it was only because she knew 
he wished it. Unceasingly she strove to turn his thoughts 
to those subjects in which she alone found comfort, which 
alone she thought important. She warned him not to 
be dazzled nor deluded by his popularity, of which her 
good sense as a woman, no less than her opinions as a 
Presbyterian, taught her the emptiness. One Sunday 
morning, a communion Sunday, in 1826 or 1827, as they 
were walking towards the little Hermitage church, she 
besought him to dally no longer with his sense of duty, 
but, then and there, that very hour, in their own little 
church, to renounce the world and all its pomps and 
vanities and partake of communion with her. He 

173 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

answered : ' My dear, if I were to do that now, it would 
be said all over the country that I had done it for the 
sake of political effect. My enemies would all say so. 
I cannot do it now, but I promise you that when once 
more I am clear of politics I will join the church." 

The dastardly slanders did more than affect his wife's 
health. They embittered Jackson's politics to the last 
degree. They engendered a spirit of acrid partisanship, 
and I have no doubt were the cause of Jackson's de- 
termination to clear out of ofifice every representative of 
the party in power whom he could properly or im- 
properly remove, and that in large measure the intro- 
duction of the so-called " Spoils System" grew out of 
the hatred engendered by these savage and degrading 
personalities. 

The death of Mrs. Jackson was on this wise. Jack- 
son's friends in Nashville, having learned the exact 
results of the election to the Presidency on December 
II, 1828, determined to give a gala entertainment, in- 
cluding a reception, banquet, and ball, on the twenty- 
third of the month. Preparations were being hastened 
when the news came that Mrs. Jackson was sorely 
stricken with heart disease. For sixty hours she suf- 
fered excruciating pain, during which the general never 
left her side, attending to her, ministering to her, 
striving to relieve her with sleepless devotion which 
attests the depth of his feeling for her. 

She rallied from this seizure and insisted that the 
proposed entertainment in honor of her husband's vic- 
tory should not be abandoned. On the evening of the 
twenty-second, however, she was stricken again by a 
more violent attack than the first, in which, after a 
period of suffering, mercifully brief, she passed away. 
Old Hannah, one of her faithful slaves, has left this ac- 
count of her death; which the chronicler thereof has 
improved in language at the sacrifice of picturesqueness : 

174 




MRS. JACKSON 

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl, painted at 
The Hermitage in 1825 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

" On Monday evening, the evening before the twenty- 
third, her disease appeared to take a decided turn for 
the better, and she then so earnestly entreated the gen- 
eral to prepare for the fatigues of the morrow by having 
a night of undisturbed sleep, that he consented, at last, 
to go into an adjoining room and lie down upon a sofa. 
The doctor was still in the house. Hannah and George 
were to sit up with their mistress. 

" At nine o'clock the general bade her good-night, 
went into the next room, and took off his coat, prepara- 
tory to lying down. He had been gone about five 
minutes ; Mrs. Jackson was then, for the first time, re- 
moved from her bed, that it might be re-arranged for 
the night. While sitting in a chair, supported in the 
arms of Hannah, she uttered a long, inarticulate cry, 
which was immediately followed by a rattling noise in 
the throat. Her head fc!' forward upon Hannah's 
shoulder. She never spoke nor breathed again. 

" There was a wild rush into the room of husband, 
doctor, relatives, friends, and servants. The general 
assisted to lay her upon the bed. ' Bleed her,' he cried. 
No blood flowed from her arm. ' Try the temple, Doc- 
tor.' Two drops stained her cap, but no more followed. 

" It was long before he would believe her dead. He 
looked eagerly -into her face, as if still expecting to see 
signs of returning life. Her hands and feet grew cold. 
There could be no doubt then, and they prepared a table 
for laying her out. With a choking voice the general 
said: 

Spread four blankets upon it. If she does come 
to, she will lie so hard upon the table.' 

" He sat all night long in the room by her side, with 
his face in his hands, ' grieving,' said Hannah, and 
occasionally looking into the face and feeling the heart 
and pulse of the form so dear to him. Major Lewis, 
who had been immediately sent for, arrived just before 

175 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

daylight and found him still there, nearly speechless 
and wholly inconsolable. He sat in the room nearly 
all the next day, the picture of despair. It was only 
with great difficulty that he was persuaded to take a 
little coffee. 

" ' And this was the way,' concluded Hannah, ' that 
old mistus died ; and we always say, that when we lost 
her, we lost a mistus and a mother too ; and more a 
mother than a mistus. And we say the same of old 
master ; for he was more a father to us than a master, 
and many's the time we've wished him back again, to 
help us out of our troubles.' " 

For sixteen hours Jackson watched by the bier of his 
wife, " tearless, speechless, almost expressionless." Car- 
roll, Coffee, Adair, and others of his old companions in 
arms, hastening to him, had to restrain him from her 
side and almost force him to eat and sleep. Those who 
had maligned her so cruelly were filled with remorse 
when too late. 

According to Colonel Ben Truman : " As the friends 
of the dead gathered about to look for the last time 
upon her face, General Jackson lifted his cane as if 
appealing to Heaven, and by a look commanding silence, 
said slowly and painfully and with a voice full of bitter 
tears : ' In the presence of this dead saint I can and do 
forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who 
have slandered her must look to God for mercy.' " 

Jackson never lost that feeling. Sometime after the 
funeral, while kneeling down and arranging the 
branches of a rosebush planted near her grave, he 
clasped his hands and said in the presence of his 
adopted son and others : " She was murdered — mur- 
dered by slanderers that pierced her heart. May God 
Almighty forgive her murderers, as I know she forgave 
them, I never can !" Buell adds sapiently, " He never 
did." 

176 



MOTHER AND WIFE 

Friendly papers vied with each other in eulogies. 
The Tennessee Republican paid her this beautiful 
tribute : " Her pure and gentle heart, in which a selfish, 
guileful, or malicious thought never found entrance, was 
the throne of benevolence ; and under its noble influence 
her faculties and time were constantly devoted to the ex- 
ercise of hospitality and to acts of kindness. To feed 
the hungry, clothe the naked, to supply the indigent, to 
raise the humble, to notice the friendless, and to com- 
fort the unfortunate, were her favorite occupations ; nor 
could the kindness of her soul be repressed by distress 
or prosperity ; but like those fountains which, rising in 
deep and secluded valleys, flow on in the forest of 
winter and through summer's heat, it maintained a 
uniform and refreshing current. Thus she lived ; and 
when death approached, her patience and resignation 
were equal to her goodness; not an impatient gesture, 
not a fretful accent, escaped i.er; but her last breath 
was charged with an expression of tenderness for the 
man who loved her more than her life, and whom she 
honored next to her God." 

The remains of Mrs. Jackson were buried at the 
Hermitage, where years after her great husband was 
laid by her side. The tomb erected over them somewhat 
resembles an open summer-house. It is a small white 
dome supported by slender pillars of marble. The tablet 
which covers Mrs. Jackson bears this inscription, com- 
posed by the general himself: 

" Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of 
President Jackson, who died the 22d of December, 1828, aged 
61. Her face was fair ; her person pleasing, her temper amiable, 
her heart kind ; she delighted in relieving the wants of her 
fellow creatures, and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most 
liberal and unpretending methods; to the poor she was a bene-' 
factor ; to the rich an example ; to the wretched a comforter ; 
to the prosperous an ornament ; her piety went hand in hand 
12 177 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

with her benevolence, and she thanked her Creator for being 
permitted to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous, 
slander might wound but could not dishonor. Even death, 
when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but 
transport her to the bosom of her God." 

" General Jackson never recovered from the shock of 
his wife's death. He was never quite the same man 
afterwards. It subdued his spirit and corrected his 
speech. Except on occasions of extreme excitement, 
few and far between, he never again used what is com- 
monly called ' profane language,' not even the familiar 
phrase, ' By the Eternal !' There were times, of course, 
when his fiery passions asserted themselves; when he 
uttered wrathful words ; when he wished even to throw 
off the robes of office, as he once said, that he might 
call his enemies to a dear account. But these were rare 
occurrences. He mourned deeply and ceaselessly the 
loss of his truest friend, and was often guided, in his 
domestic affairs, by what he supposed would have been 
her will if she had been there to make it known." 

Near the close of his second term as President the 
Rev. Dr. Van Pelt, of New York, in conversation with 
Jackson remarked : 

" I hear, General, that you were blessed with a 
Christian companion." 

" Yes," said the President, " my wife was a pious 
Christian woman. She gave me the best advice, and I 
have not been unmindful of it. When the people in 
their sovereign pleasure elected me as President of the 
United States, she said to me, ' Don't let your oppor- 
tunity turn your head away from the duty you owe to 
God. Before Him we are all alike sinners, and to Him 
we must all alike give account. All these things will 
pass away, and you and I, and all of us must stand 
before God.' " Tears were in his eyes, adds Dr. Van 
Pelt, as he said these words. 

178 



IX 

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

Aside from his mother and his wife, the name of 
Mrs. Margaret Eaton is more frequently associated with 
that of Jackson than is that of any other woman — not, 
of course, in any improper sense, his relations to her 
being simply those of the ardent champion and the zeal- 
ous defender of a greatly slandered and grossly abused 
woman, who was, moreover, the wife of one of his most 
intimate friends. 

Women have not played a large part in American his- 
tory so far, and as a rule — to which there are excep- 
tions — only the bad ones have played any considerable 
part in the history of the world, save in those few in- 
stances where reigning monarchs have been women, as 
Elizabeth of England, Catherine of Russia, Maria Teresa 
of Austria, and the late Queen Victoria. American mo- 
rality was too stern for any woman to play a part behind 
a presidential chair like that which Madame de Pompa- 
dour, for instance, played behind a throne. But of all 
women who have influenced political affairs Mrs. Eaton 
stands first. Her influence was not due to force of char- 
acter, or to consecration of life, or to devotion to ideals, as 
was the influence of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton, Frances Willard, or Clara Barton, to state some 
modern instances, but to circumstances which brought 
her in contact with Jackson in a way which particularly 
appealed to his chivalrous nature. His regard and re- 
spect for the other sex have already been noted. No 
knight-errant was ever more prompt to succor and de- 
fend assailed femininity than he, and a petticoat in dis- 

179 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

tress always awakened most enthusiastic devotion. He 
was never happier than when he was fighting for a 
woman, and rarely did he appear to better advantage 
either. 

It seems that there lived in Washington for a long 
time prior to Jackson's election to the Presidency one 
William O'Neal, a man of humble extraction, indifferent 
manners, and no social position, but withal possessing 
a large, foreseeing ambition for his daughter. He kept 
a private hotel, or large boarding-house, much patron- 
ized by members of Congress and others who belonged 
to the more permanent residents of the capital, as dis- 
tinguished from the casual and transient visitors to 
Washington. His daughter Margaret, familiarly 
known as Peg, or Peggy O'Neal, a bright, vivacious, 
well-educated young woman, pretty and petite in person 
and pleasing in manner, naturally was a great favorite 
among the guests at her father's hostelry. General and 
Mrs. Jackson among them. She was a fearless and im- 
prudent young woman, careless always, but immoral 
never. The social circle in which her lines were cast 
was much beneath her merits. Her father had educated 
her out of it, but was unable to provide her with any 
other. It is probable that many of the men with whom 
she came in contact treated her with that degree of 
familiarity which a certain kind of men usually make 
use of in similar circumstances — did make use of in 
those days more frequently than they would do now. 
For instance, note the following: 

Jackson writes to Lewis, after the Eaton affair had 
reached its most acute stage, giving details of an incident 
that had occurred four years before, in 1824, when Mrs. 
Timberlake, as she then was, asked his protection against 
a certain General Call; she, Call, Jackson, and Eaton 
being at the time all inmates of her father's hotel. 
" Call's plea in justification may be omitted," says Sum- 

180 



\ 

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

ner, but it can be imagined. "I," writes Jackson " gave 
him a severe lecture for taking up such ideas of female 
virtue unless on some positive evidence of his own, of 
which he had acknowledged he had none, only informa- 
tion — and I enforced my admonition by referring him 
to the rebuff he had met with, which I trusted for the 
future would guard him from the like improper conduct. 
... I then told you, and have since repeated, that I had 
never seen or heard aught against the chastity of Mrs. 
Timberlake that was calculated to raise even suspicion 
of her virtue in the mind of anyone who was not under 
the influence of deep prejudice or prone to jealousy — 
that I believed her a virtuous and much injured female." 

Consequently there was a great deal of gossip about 
the pert, witty, audacious, and reckless Miss O'Neal — 
gossip, there is no doubt, for which any adequate 
foundation or real justification was lacking. Of course, 
she had no social position whatever; but that did not 
exempt her from the comments of her sex, however 
highly placed the individual members thereof were. 
And it must be admitted, in feminine justification, that 
the women of Washington society could only have heard 
about Peggy O'Neal from the men ! In course of time 
the fascinating Miss Peggy married a purser (pay- 
master) in the navy named Timberlake, who was evi- 
dently not troubled by the damaging rumors current. 
By him she had several children. Timberlake was not 
much of a man, — her friends thought that the charming 
Peggy had greatly demeaned herself by marrying him, 
— and he finally committed suicide in despair over his 
inability to control his appetite for liquor. The end of 
his life came while on a cruise in European waters, 
during which he had been absent from home several 
years. 

Jackson's friend and former comrade, Major Eaton, 
whose first wife had been a connection of Jackson's, 

i8i 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

married the widow in January, 1829, after consulting 
Jackson as to the propriety of his action. " Jackson, 
having learned of the scandal but disbelieving it, said 
to Eaton, ' Your marrying her will disprove these 
charges, and restore Peg's good name.' The general 
treated with violent contempt the persons, some of them 
clergymen, ' whose morbid appetite,' he wrote to the 
Rev. Dr. Ely, ' delights in defamation and slander.' 
Burning with anger at those who dared in the recent 
canvass to malign his own wife, now dead, he defended 
with chivalrous resolution the lady whom his own wife, 
' to the last moment of her life believed . . . to be an in- 
nocent and much-injured woman.' Even Mrs. Madison, 
he said, ' was assailed by those fiends in human shape.' 
When protests were made against Eaton's appointment 
to the Cabinet, Jackson savagely cried, * I will sink or 
swim with him, by God !' " 

It is probable that the gossip of which Mrs. O'Neal- 
Timberlake-Eaton had been once the subject would have 
died down had not Jackson appointed Major Eaton his 
Secretary of War, thus giving his wife a high position 
in the official society of the capital. The families of the 
Vice-President and of the Secretaries of the Treasury 
and Navy and the Attorney-General promptly and posi- 
tively refused to receive Mrs. Eaton. 

It cannot be denied that Jackson had received ample 
warning as to the position official society would take 
with regard to Mrs. Eaton. His selections for the 
Cabinet were announced in the Telegraph several days 
before his inauguration. Lewis, who was an eye-witness 
to the episode, writes the following account of the re- 
ceipt of the news which will illustrate the opinion preva- 
lent in society, and in official and military circles. 

" On the following evening [after the newspaper an- 
nouncements] he received a call from Colonel Towson, 
a gallant and distinguished military officer, and at that 

182 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

time the paymaster-general of the United States army. 
The parlor, as usual, was crowded, and the colonel find- 
ing there was no chance of speaking to the general 
privately, asked if there was any room in which he 
could have a private interview with him for a few 
minutes. 

" ' Certainly,' the general said, and invited him into 
his bedchamber. 

" He opened the door and begged the colonel to walk 
in, but when he got to the door and saw me seated at a 
table, writing, he drew back. 

" ' Come in,' the general repeated, ' there is no one 
here but Major Lewis, and between him and me there 
are no secrets.' 

" The colonel then came in, and he and the general 
seated themselves near the fireplace. I had no wish 
to listen to their conversation, but as the room was 
small, and they spoke in their usual tone of voice, I could 
not help hearing every word they said ; and as the gen- 
eral did not propose I should leave the room, I con- 
tinued to write on, as I knew he was anxious that the 
writing upon which I was engaged, should be finished 
in time for that night's mail. After being seated, the 
colonel remarked that he saw published in the Telegraph 
of that morning ' a list of names of the persons that you 
propose, general, it is said, to bring into your Cabinet.' 

" ' Yes, sir,' he replied, ' those gentlemen will com- 
pose my Cabinet.' 

" ' There is no objection, I believe, personally, to any 
of them,' said the colonel, ' but there is one of them 
your friends think it would be advisable to substitute 
with the name of some other person.' 

" ' Which of the names do you refer to. Colonel ?' he 
inquired. 

" ' I mean that of Mr. Eaton,' he said. 

" ' Mr. Eaton is an old personal friend of mine,' the 

183 




THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

general remarked. * He is a man of talents and experi- 
ence, and one in whom his State, as well as myself, have 
every confidence. I cannot see, therefore,' he added, 
' why there should be any objection to him.' 

" ' There is none, I believe, personally, to him,' the 
colonel said, ' but there are great objections made to his 
wife.' 

" ' And pray, Colonel, what will his wife have to do 
with the duties of the War Department ?' asked the gen- 
eral. 

" ' Not much, perhaps,' said the colonel, ' but she is a 
person with whom the ladies of this city do not asso- 
ciate. She is not, and probably never 'Ovill be, received 
into society here, and if Mr. Eaton shall be made a 
member of the Cabinet, it may become a source of 
annoyance to both you and him.' 

" ' That may possibly be so,' he said, ' but, Colonel, 
do you suppose that I have been sent here by the people 
to consult the ladies of Washington as to the proper 
persons to compose my Cabinet? In the selection of its 
members I shall consult my own judgment, looking to 
the great and paramount interests of the whole country, 
and not to the accommodation of society and drawing- 
rooms of this or any other city. Mr. Eaton will certainly 
be one of my constitutional advisers, unless he declines 
to become a member of my Cabinet.' " 

The action of Colonel Towson was not singular, for 
from the same reasons that he put forth, great efforts 
were made to induce Jackson to change his mind and 
make another appointment. The women of Washington, 
for one thing, could not look with equanimity upon the 
entrance of a tavern-keeper's daughter into Washington 
society, even if there had been nothing alleged against 
her character. 

After the appointment, when the storm that had been 
so long brewing broke, Jackson, with his usual per- 

184 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

tinacity, ran down the different scandals until he finally 
localized them under two heads : one, that something 
like a year after Timberlake departed on his European 
voyage, Mrs. Eaton had undergone a premature ac- 
couchement ; the other, that before her marriage to him 
she and Eaton, who was then a United States senator 
from Tennessee, had visited New York and other cities, 
registering at hotels as man and wife. There were all 
sorts of subsidiary charges, one, for instance, being to 
the effect that Mrs. Eaton told her children by Mr. 
Timberlake that their name was legitimately — or illegiti- 
mately ! — Eaton ; fof Eaton was their real progenitor, 
while Timberlake was merely their putative father. 

With unwearied zeal, Jackson, having thus reduced 
the gossip to something tangible, now traced these 
stories to their authority, the Reverend Doctor Camp- 
bell, a Presbyterian minister and pastor of the church 
which Jackson and his wife had been accustomed to 
attend. Doctor Campbell, who seems to have been a 
rather poor specimen of clergyman, had formally 
brought the question of Mrs. Eaton's alleged miscon- 
duct to the President through a friend of his, the 
Reverend Doctor Ely, of Philadelphia. Jackson had it 
out with Messrs. Ely and Campbell. He went at it with 
thoroughness, and amassed proofs of the falsity of the 
slander which were exhaustive and convincing to him- 
self and, I may add, to posterity. He exploded posi- 
tively the accusations and proved them to be lies beyond 
peradventure. The correspondence he conducted would 
fill a volume. The following excerpts from a letter he 
wrote to Doctor Ely are sufficiently indicative of his 
thoughts : 

" Washington, March 23, 1829. 

" Dear Sir : Your confidential letter of the eighteenth instant 
has been received in the same spirit of kindness and friendship 
with which it was written. 

185 



' THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" I must here be permitted to remark that I sincerely regret 
you did not personally name this subject to me before you left 
Washington, as I could in that event have apprised you of the 
great exertions made by Clay and his partisans, here and else- 
w^here, to destroy the character of Mrs. Eaton by the foulest 
and basest means, so that a deep and lasting wrong might be 
inflicted on her husband. I could have given you information 
that might at least have put you on your guard with respect to 
anonymous letters containing slanderous insinuations against 
female character. If such evidence as this is to be received, 
I ask, where is the guarantee for female character, however 
moral — however virtuous? . . . Would you, my worthy friend, 
desire me to add the weight and influence of my name, whatever 
it may be, to assist in crushing Mrs. Eaton, who, I do believe, 
and have a right to believe, is a much injured woman, and 
more virtuous than some of her enemies? . . . Mr. Eaton has 
been known to me for twenty years. His character heretofore, 
for honesty and morality, has been unblemished ; and I am 
now, for the first time, to change my opinion of him because 
of the slanders of this city? . . . 

" You were badly advised, my dear sir, when informed ' that 
Mrs. Jackson, while in Washington, did not fear to put the seal 
of reprobation on such a character as Mrs. Eaton.' Mrs. Jack- 
son, to the last moment of her life, believed Mrs. Eaton to be 
an innocent and much injured woman, so far as relates to the 
tales about her and Mr. Eaton, and none other ever reached 
her or me. ... In 1823 I again visited the city in the character 
of senator from Tennessee, and took lodging with Mr. Eaton 
at Major O'Neal's, when and where I became acquainted with 
Mr. and Mrs. Timberlake. I was there when Mr. Timberlake 
left this country for the Mediterranean and was present when 
he took leave of his wife, children, and family. He parted with 
them in the most affectionate manner, as he did also with 
myself and Mr. Eaton. Between him and the latter gentleman 
there appeared to be nothing but friendship and confidence 
from the first time I saw them at Major O'Neal's, until the 
day of his departure. From the situation and proximity of the 
rooms we occupied there could not have been any illicit inter- 
course between Mr. Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake without my 
having some knowledge of it; and I assure you, sir, that I saw 
nothing, heard nothing, which was calculated to excite even the 
slightest suspicion. Shortly after Mr. Timberlake left Wash- 
ington for the Mediterranean, I was told in great confidence 
that it was rumored in the city that Mr. Eaton and Mrs. Tim- 

186 



; 



THE- AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

berlake were too intimate. I met it, as I meet all slanders, with 
a prompt denial, and inquired from what source this rumor 
came, and I found it originated with a female against whom 
there was as much said as is now said against Mrs. Eaton. 
This report came to the ear of Mrs. Jackson through the same 
channel, but to the day of her death she believed it to be a base 
slander, as I do at this day. . . . 

" When Mrs. Eaton visits me (she has not done so since the 
fourth) I shall treat her with as much politeness as I have 
ever done, believing her virtuous, as least as much so as the 
female who first gave rise to the foul tale, and as are many of 
thqse who traduce her. As to the determination of the ladies 
in Washington, I have nothing, nor will I ever have anything, 
to do with it. I will not persuade or dissuade any of them 
from visiting Mrs. Eaton, leaving Mrs. Eaton and them to 
settle the matter in their own way; but I am told that many 
of the ladies here have waited on her. . . ." 

The matter was finally carried into the Cabinet at a 
special meeting in which the Reverend Doctors Camp- 
bell and Ely were present. After an animated session 
all present save the two clergymen appeared to be con- 
vinced of Mrs. Eaton's innocence. For one thing, 
it was at last agreed by everybody that Eaton had not 
misconducted himself with Mrs. Timberlake, as was 
charged, but that seemed to make no difference in the 
situation of his wife. 

Jackson did more than disprove the charges against 
his young friend. He endeavored, after having rehabih- 
tated Mrs. Eaton in his own eyes, to force recalcitrant 
society to take her up. Here he failed. Although he 
was ably seconded by Postmaster-General Barry's 
family, by Secretary Van Buren, who was a widower, 
and by one or two of the foreign ministers who were 
not blessed with womankind in their families, he was 
unable to bring the recusants to terms. There was one 
power which Jackson could not coerce — that was the 
prejudice of woman. The more successfully Jackson 
proved the innocence of Mrs. Eaton, the more resolute 

187 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

were the women of his official family not to recognize 
her — perhaps because he had proven them wrong! At 
any rate, in spite of everything that he could do, Mrs. 
Eaton continued to be slighted publicly. 

Jackson even met with rebellion in his own household, 
for Mrs. Donelson, who had been installed as mistress 
of the White House, joined the opposition and was sent 
back to Nashville in disgrace, although she did return 
penitent some six months later and extended the olive- 
branch to the unfortunate lady, who had become ad 
interim, so far as Jackson could compass it, the hostess 
of the White House and " the first lady of the land." 

So acute were the social difficulties that, on one occa- 
sion, the wife of the Dutch minister, Huyghens, posi- 
tively refused to sit by Mrs. Eaton, actually withdrawing 
from a dinner in the most pointed manner rather than 
so demean herself. Jackson was so angry that he was 
with difficulty dissuaded from sending her husband 
home for the insult. 

This affair created a coolness between Jackson and 
those members of his Cabinet whose wives and daugh- 
ters had refused to bow to the Presidential will. The 
men themselves had no hesitation in extending courtesies 
to Mrs. Eaton, but they said, and the position is under- 
standable, that they could not, or would not, coerce their 
wives ; they declared, furthermore, that social and politi- 
cal affairs were not necessarily on the same basis, and 
there they rested. 

Now, beginning with Parton, a great many people 
have come to the solemn conclusion that the Cabinet 
was subsequently — shall I saij/ dissolved? — on account 
of this Eaton affair. Parton boldly affirms that " the 
political history of the United States for the last thirty 
years dates from the moment that Van Buren, to pla- 
cate his chief, called upon Mrs. Eaton." Even Buell 
declares that the incident influenced the whole history 

i88 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

of Jackson's two administrations and its effects cropped 
out from 1826 to 1837. This is a sample of the way in 
which the romantic and dramatic episode is seized upon 
and given undue value. It is a sample of the tortuous 
methods bv which historians, even the best of them, 
disdain the really open and natural explanation of a fact 
and search for something dark and mysterious to explain 
that which is so plain that he who runs ought to be 
able to read. 

The best thing in Colonel Colyar's interesting book is 
his thorough demolition of this idea. Cabinet changes 
in previous administrations had not been infrequent, but 
they were slow, gradual, and easily explainable. Over 
a year after the Eaton embroglio Jackson's Cabinet, with 
the exception of Postmaster-General Barry, who had 
been recently elevated there and for whose retention 
there were especial reasons, suddenly resigned. Van 
Buren and Eaton led, Branch, Berrien, and Ingham fol- 
lowed. A new Cabinet was at once appointed. Van 
Buren exchanged places with the minister to England. 
After an interval Eaton was appointed governor of 
Florida and thence sent to Madrid as minister to Spain. 
Branch, Berrien, and Ingham were left unprovided for 
by the administration. 

The opportunity to couple this dissolution of the Cabi- 
net with the position the families of the several members 
had taken with regard to Mrs. Eaton was too good for 
the historical gossips to lose. There are people — I dare 
say the majority — who believe to this day that the one 
was the cause of the other. Now, I shall not go so far 
as to say that the Eaton affair may not have contributed 
in some degree to the retirement of Branch, Berrien, and 
Ingham, but that it was the cause of it I deny. 

It is well known that Jackson, with his strong preju- 
dice in favor of Mrs. Eaton, viewed with extreme dis- 
favor the course of the families of the three Secretaries, 

189 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

and that he visited this displeasure upon these three men, 
although his own experience with them in this very- 
matter should have shown him how futile would have 
been the attempt on the part of the Secretaries to make 
their wives associate with the condemned one. 

It is also known that no Cabinet meetings were held 
for a long time and that there was an entire lack of 
cordiality and cooperation between the President and 
his Cabinet. It may be surmised that Jackson, under 
the circumstances, would have been pleased to have had 
the resignations of these gentlemen tendered to him long 
before, but the very fact that they held office and did 
not tender their resignations goes to show that the situa- 
tion was not so acute as has been pictured. Why, then, 
did the Cabinet officers resign. In the first place, it was 
suggested to them by Jackson himself, who managed 
the whole affair with delightful adroitness. Why was 
the suggestion made? For another cause entirely — his 
rupture with Calhoun, the Vice-President. 

To explain that break we must hark back to Jackson's 
conduct in that Florida campaign in which he invaded 
Spanish territory and executed Arbuthnot and Am- 
brister. It will be recalled that Jackson's course was 
the subject of severe censure, and that he attempted to 
justify himself for his invasion by the statement that 
Monroe while President had authorized him to do so 
through a letter to one Rhea. Monroe denied this on 
his dying bed. Rhea and Jackson both asserted it. 
Neither Monroe nor Jackson would lie. This leaves the 
issue with Rhea. In justice to Rhea, Jackson claimed to 
have seen the letter. Nobody can explain this matter 
satisfactorily now. 

At any rate, Monroe's Cabinet, with the exception of 
Adams, wished to disavow Jackson's action, and Calhoun 
even went so far as to propose the arrest of Jackson. 
In some way Jackson received the impression that Craw- 

190 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

ford, of Georgia, was the man who had proposed his 
arrest and that Calhoun had been his defender in the 
Cabinet. Consequently Jackson hated Crawford and 
was grateful to Calhoun. Crawford, an old, broken 
man, defeated in his aspirations for the Presidency, en- 
feebled by a paralytic stroke from which he never 
recovered, filled with bitter enmity towards Calhoun for 
causes which do not enter into this discussion, about 
this time informed Jackson by letter that Calhoun, who 
was then Vice-President, had been that member of the 
Cabinet who had proposed Jackson's arrest. A cor- 
respondence between Jackson and Calhoun at once took 
place. The following quotation from Jackson's last 
letter to him sufficiently indicates the character of the 
dispute. 

" Motives are to be inferred from actions, and judged by our 
God. It had been intimated to me many years ago that it was 
you, and not Mr. Crawford, who had been secretly endeavoring 
to destroy my reputation. These insinuations I indignantly 
repelled, upon the ground that you, in all your letters to me, 
professed to be my personal friend, and approved entirely my 
conduct in relation to the Seminole campaign. I had too ex- 
alted an opinion of your honor and frankness to believe for 
one moment that you could be capable of such deception. 
Under the influence of these friendly feelings (which I always 
entertained for you) when I was presented with a copy of Mr. 
Crawford's letter, with that frankness which ever has, and I 
hope ever will, characterize my conduct, I considered it due to 
you, and the friendly relations which had always existed 
between us, to lay it forthwith before you, and ask if the state- 
ments contained in that letter could be true. I repeat, I had a 
right to believe that you were my sincere friend, and, until now, 
never expected to have occasion to say of you, in the language 
of Csesar, Et tti, Brute? The evidence which has brought me 
to this conclusion is abundantly contained in your letter now 
before me." 

This affair broke all relations between the President 
and the Vice-President. Calhoun had looked upon 

191 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

himself — and perhaps with justification — as the legiti- 
mate successor to the Presidency when Jackson retired, 
as it was believed he intended to do after one term of 
office. Calhoun was shrewd enough to perceive that 
if his ambitions were to be realized he must have the 
support of Jackson. Consequently he had cultivated 
amicable relations with the President. The Crawford 
letter was a bolt from the blue. Jackson never forgave 
an enemy. Rarely did he forget a friend, an enemy — 
never ! To have won his friendship, to have posed as 
his supporter, all these years, when in the critical mo- 
ment of his life he had been opposed to him tooth and 
nail — but secretly ! — this absolutely swept away the last 
vestige of respect or friendship the President had enter- 
tained for the Vice-President and destroyed any possible 
future associations. 

The Crawford letter was dishonorable in the extreme. 
It revealed a Cabinet secret which no one else had dis- 
closed. Crawford, if he had been himself, probably 
would never have resorted to such an expedient to ruin 
his rival, although his hatred of Calhoun was virulent. 
Calhoun finally realized that it was impossible to fight 
against Jackson, backed as he was by such a popularity 
as no President ever had attained to. At one stroke the 
hopes of the great South Carolinian were blasted. He 
sank from a figure of national prominence to that of the 
leading representative of a single State, and a State dis- 
cordant at that. After Jackson got through with him 
he was no longer a Presidential possibility. It is more 
than suspected that some of Calhoun's nullification spirit 
may have arisen from his recognition of that fact. 

Calhoun, with a singular lack of dignity — he should 
have refused to discuss the situation opened in such a 
way — did his best to explain the circumstances, but his 
explanations did not avail with the uncompromising 
Jackson. He proceeded to put an effectual check on 

192 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

Calhoun's aspirations. Lewis, who of all men knew the 
truth, wrote : 

" It has been frequently stated that this quarrel had 
its origin in the Eaton affair. This is a mistake. That 
the latter was the occasion of much excitement, as well 
as great bitterness of feeling, there is no doubt, but of 
itself it would not have caused a separation between the 
general and Mr. Calhoun. It is also true that nearly all 
those who exerted themselves, iirst to prevent Mr. 
Eaton's appointment as a member of the Cabinet, and 
afterwards, having failed in that, to drive him out of 
it, were the friends of Mr. Calhoun." 

Branch, Berrien, and Ingham were staunch friends 
and supporters of the Vice-President. Jackson could 
not endure the idea of having them in the Cabinet. Yet 
their friendship with Calhoun was not a sufficient ex- 
cuse for him to dismiss them summarily. They must 
be induced to resign. Van Buren and Eaton were Jack- 
son's friends. If they resigned from the Cabinet volun- 
tarily Jackson would have an excuse for asking or at 
least suggesting the resignations of the others, in order 
completely to reorganize his Cabinet on harmonious and 
homogeneous lines. It is probable that at this time Van 
Buren was promised Jackson's influence in succession to 
him for the Presidency. 

Eaton was anxious to get out of the Cabinet. Genial, 
hospitable, and kind-hearted, he was disgusted with the 
atrocious calumnies that had been heaped upon his 
unfortunate wife, and he bitterly resented the social 
ostracism to which she had been subjected. He was 
more than willing to resign — indeed, anxious to do so. 
Both these men were glad to smooth the way for Jack- 
son. Van Buren and Eaton resigned, and their resigna- 
tions were accepted in extremely flattering letters by the 
President. And they were both taken care of. 

Almost immediately after, the three other members of 
13 193 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON. 

the Cabinet placed their resignations in the hands of the 
President. The way this was brought about may be 
understood by the correspondence between the President 
and the Secretary of the Navy, which I have selected as 
the shortest and most convincing of the various inter- 
changes of letters : 

" Washington, April 19, 1831. 

" Sir : In the interview which I had the honor to hold with 
you this morning, I understood it to be your fixed purpose to 
reorganize your Cabinet, and that as to myself it was your wish 
that I should retire from the administration of the Navy 
Department. 

" Under these circumstances I take pleasure in tendering to 
you the commission which, unsolicited on my part, you were 
pleased to confer on me. 

" I have the honor to be, with great respect, yours, etc., 

" John Branch. 

" To the President of the United States." 

" Washington, April 19, 1831. 

"Sir: Your letter of this date, by your son, is just received 
— accompanying it is your commission. The sending of the 
latter was not necessary ; it is your own private property, and 
by no means to be considered part of the archives of the gov- 
ernment. Accordingly I return it. 

" There is one expression in your letter to which I take leave 
to except. I did not, as to yourself, express a wish that you 
should retire. The Secretaries of State and of War having 
tendered their resignations, I remarked to you that I felt it to 
be indispensable to reorganize my Cabinet proper ; that it had 
come in harmoniously, and as a unit ; and as a part was about 
to leave me, which on to-morrow would be announced, a reor- 
ganization was necessary to guard against misapprehension. 
These were my remarks, made to you in candor and sincerity. 
Your letter gives a dififerent import to my words. 

" Your letter contains no remarks as to your performing the 
duties of the office until a successor can be selected. On this 
subject I should be glad to know your views. I am, very 
respectfully, yours, 

" Andrew Jackson. 

" The Hon. John Branch, Secretary of the Navy." 

194 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

" Washington, April 19, 1831. 

" Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours 
of this date, in answer to mine of the same. 

" In reply to your remark that there is one expression in my 
letter to which you must except, I would respectfully answer 
that I gave what I understood to be the substance of your con- 
versation. I did not pretend to quote your language. 

" I regret that I misunderstood you in the slightest degree ; 
I, however, stand corrected, and cheerfully accept the interpre- 
tation which you have given to your own expression. 

" I shall freely continue my best exertions to discharge the 
duties of the department, until you provide a successor. 

" I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your 
obedient servant, 

"John Branch. 

" To the President of the United States." 

" Washington, April 20, 1831. 

" Sir : Late last evening, I had the honor to receive your 
letter of that date, tendering your resignation of the office of 
Secretary of the Navy. 

" When the resignations of the Secretary of State and Secre- 
tary of War were tendered, I considered fully the reasons 
offered, and all the circumstances connected with the subject. 
After mature deliberation, I concluded to accept these resigna- 
tions. But when this conclusion was come to, it was accom- 
panied with a conviction that I must certainly renew my 
Cabinet. Its members had been invited by me to the stations 
they occupied ; it came together in great harmony, and as a 
unit. Under the circumstances in which I found myself, I 
could not but perceive the propriety of selecting a Cabinet 
composed of entirely new materials, as being calculated, in 
this respect at least, to command public confidence and satisfy 
public opinion. Neither could I be insensible to the fact that 
to permit two only to retire would be to afford room for unjust 
misconceptions and malignant representations concerning the 
influence of their particular presence upon the conduct of public 
affairs. Justice to the individuals whose public spirit had im- 
pelled them to tender their resignations also required, then, in 
my opinion, the decision which I have stated. However painful 
to my own feelings, it became necessary that I should frankly 
make known to you my view of the whole subject. 

" In accepting your resignation, it is with great pleasure that 

195 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

I bear testimony to the integrity and zeal with which you have 
managed the concerns of the navy. In your discharge of all 
the duties of your office over which I have any control, I have 
been fully satisfied; and in your retirement you carry with you 
my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness. It is ex- 
pected that you will continue to discharge the duties of your 
office until a successor is appointed. 

" I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most 
obedient servant, 

" Andrew Jackson. 

" John Branch, Secretary of the Navy." 

In this connection it may be pointed out that Jack- 
son's hatred of Clay arose from Clay's course in the 
Senate when the resolutions of censure upon him for 
his conduct in this campaign — which resolutions Cal- 
houn would have undoubtedly supported had he not 
been in the Cabinet — were under discussion. Colyar 
ably sums up the consequences of the action of Clay and 
Calhoun as follows : 

" A recapitulation of the facts may help the student 
of history, to whom they are new, to realize their impor- 
tance, and such recapitulation is more than justified, 
because they are the open door to what is known as the 
Jacksonian period. They are the foundation of the life- 
time bitterness between Clay and Jackson, breaking up 
a friendship as sincere as common ties and a union of 
efforts in the War of 1812 could make it. They severed 
the relations between Mr. Calhoun and General Jackson, 
at the time when one was President and the other Vice- 
President, which had been more than friendly. The)' 
shook Washington social life as never before. They 
dissolved the President's Cabinet. They made a Jack- 
son party and a Calhoun party. They arrayed the forces 
for the great fights on the United States Bank and on 
the expunging resolutions. They divided the then con- 
trolling Republican party into a Jackson Republican 
party and a National Republican party, with Jackson and 

196 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

Clay the respective great leaders ; and they finally led 
to the organization of the Whig party, that twice elected 
a President. 

" The facts which I have here given that cannot be 
disputed are : 

" I. That General Jackson, as a major-general in the 
United States army, was sent at the head of an army 
into the Spanish territory to do what was necessary to 
fight the Seminole Indians and end the war as speedily 
as possible. 

" 2. That in addition to this general authority Jackson 
had, before he went, outlined the policy which should 
be pursued in Spanish territory, and the government 
agreed to his theory of carrying on the war, and had 
Jackson notified that his plan was approved. 

" 3. That Jackson did what had been agreed upon and 
in the way agreed on. 

" 4. Then the Cabinet unanimously censured Jackson 
without considering the evidence on which he acted, and 
this was done after Jackson refused to agree to a sug- 
gestion to change the facts by amending his report so as 
to satisfy Spain." 

In closing this chapter one or two other references to 
Mrs. Eaton may be permitted. In the summer of 1830 
she accompanied the Jackson party to Nashville. Ten- 
nessee had no scruples about receiving her when vouched 
for by her hero and idol, and Jackson with evident satis- 
faction writes to Lewis concerning her welcome : 

" The ladies of the place [Franklin] had received Mrs. Eaton 
in the most friendly manner, and had extended to her that 
polite attention due to her. This is as it should be, and is a 
severe comment on the combination at Nashville and will lead 
to its prostration. Until I got to Tyre Springs I had no con- 
ception of the combination & conspiracy to injure & prostrate 
Major Eaton — and injure me — I see the great Magicians hand 
in all this — and what mortifies me more is to find that this 
combination is holding up & making my family the tools to 

197 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

injure me, disturb my administration, & if possible to betray 
my friend Major Eaton. This will recoil upon their own heads 
— but such a combination I am sure never was formed before, 
and that my Nephew & Nece should permit themselves to be 
held up as instruments & tools, of such wickedness, is truly 
mortifying to me — I was pleased to see the marked attention 
bestowed upon the Major & his family on their journey hither 
and the secrete plans engendered at the city & concluded here 
& practised upon by some of my connections have been pros- 
trated by the independent & virtuous portion of this com- 
munity. . . ." 

Buell preserves this little anecdote, which throws a 
side-light on Jackson's admiration for the unfortunate 
lady : " A favorite boast of Jackson's was that his feet 
' had never pressed foreign soil;' that, ' born and raised 
in the United States, he had never been out of the 
country.' It is recorded that he one day made this ex- 
ultant observation in the presence of Mrs. Eaton, whose 
Irish wit prompted her to inquire, ' But how about 
Florida, General?' 

That's so. I did go to Florida when it was a 
foreign country, but I had quite forgotten that fact 
when I made the remark.' 

" ' I expect. General, you forgot that Florida was 
foreign when you made the trip?' 

" The general was put hors de combat for a moment, 
but soon rallied. ' Yes, yes, may be so. Some weak- 
kneed people in our own country seemed to think so.' 

Oh, well. General, never mind. Florida didn't stay 
foreign long after you had been there!' 

" This was one of his favorite anecdotes for the rest 
of his life. Whenever he related it, he would add: 
'Smartest little woman in America, sir; by all odds, 
the smartest !' " 

Mrs. Eaton survived her husband and all the parties 
to this affair, dying in Washington in 1879, in her 
eighty-third year. She had triumphed over the gossip 

198 



THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON 

which had placed her in such trying positions and Hved 
and died respected, if not honored. Buell, who knew 
her, says that she told him " that the real nature of the 
crusade against her was the fact that she was the 
daughter of parents who kept a boarding-house" and 
that " the assault upon her moral character was a pre- 
text." She also added the interesting comment that 
" Jackson's defence of her was wholly unsolicited and he 
never took counsel with her at any stage of it." I can 
well believe that ; he never needed appeal or urging to 
undertake a woman's cause. Poor Peggy O'Neal, more 
sinned against than sinning she certainly was. 



199 



X 



RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN 



It has been noted that Jackson was very fond of 
young girls and children. " On the bloody ground of 
Talluschatches was found a slain mother still embracing 
her living infant. The child was brought into camp with 
the other prisoners, and Jackson, anxious to save it, en- 
deavored to induce some of the Indian women to give it 
nourishment. ' No/ said they, ' all his relations are 
dead, kill him too.' This reply appealed to the heart 
of the general. He caused the child to be taken to his 
own tent, where, among the few remaining stores, was 
found a little brown sugar. This, mingled with water, 
served to keep the child alive until it could be sent to 
Nashville, where it was nursed at Jackson's expense 
until the end of the campaign, and then taken to the 
Hermitage. Mrs. Jackson received it cordially ; and 
the boy grew up in the family, treated by the general 
and his wife as a son and a favorite. Lincoyer was the 
name given him by his friend. He grew to be a finely 
formed and robust youth, and received the education 
usually given to the planters' sons in the neighborhood. 
At the proper age the general, wishing to complete his 
good work by giving him the means of independence, 
took him among the shops of Nashville and asked him 
to choose the trade he would learn. He chose the very 
business at which Jackson himself had tried his youthful 
hand — harness-making. The apprentice now spent the 
working days in the shop at Nashville, going to the 
Hermitage on Sunday evenings and returning Monday 

200 



RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN 

morning, generally riding one of the general's horses. 
The work did not agree with him, and he came back sick 
to the Hermitage, to leave it no more. His disease 
proved to be consumption. He was nursed with care 
and solicitude by good Aunt Rachel, but he sank rapidly 
and died before he had reached his seventeenth year. 
The general sincerely mourned his loss and often spoke 
of Lincoyer as a parent speaks of a lost child." 

Yet Boston held Jackson up before children as an 
ogre to frighten them into obedience. They used him to 
coerce recalcitrant infants evidently, as the following 
excerpt from a letter preserved by Fiske indicates : " It 
has been pleasant to revise many of my ideas and 
opinions ; for my youthful memories go back to the days 
when Jackson was like a bogy to frighten naughty 
children ! Boston was a place of one idea then." 

Like Washington, Jackson was childless, but he made 
his own all of the numerous relations of his wife. One 
of her nephews, Andrew Jackson Donelson, he adopted 
and made his heir, and in general no man ever treated 
his wife's relations, old and young, better than Jackson 
did. 

" Little Andrew was a pet at headquarters. The gen- 
eral could deny him nothing, and spent every leisure 
moment in playing with him, often holding him in his 
arms while he transacted business. One evening, a lady 
informs me, some companies of soldiers halted beneath 
the windows of headquarters, and the attending crowd 
began to cheer the general and call for his appearance — 
a common occurrence in those days. The little boy, who 
was asleep in an adjoining room, was awakened by the 
noise and began to cry. The general had risen from 
his chair, and was going to the window to present him- 
self to the clamoring crowd, when he heard the cry of 
the child. He paused in the middle of the room, and 
seemed in doubt for a moment which call he should 

201 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

first obey, the boy's or the citizens'. The doubt was soon 
resolved, however. He ran to the bedside of his son, 
caught him up in his arms, hushed his cries, and car- 
ried him (in his nightgown) to the window, where he 
bowed to the people, and at the same time amused the 
child with the scene in the streets." 

" Besides the young gentlemen, there was always a 
young niece or two of Mrs. Jackson's living at the Her- 
mitage. They could easily please the general with their 
music. Two songs especially delighted him — ' Auld 
Lang Syne' and ' Scots Wha ha' wi' Wallace Bled.' 
When ladies asked him to write something in their 
albums he was as likely to write ' When I can read my 
title clear' as anything else." 

To show the tender feelings felt by General Jackson 
for the young relatives of his wife, Parton transcribes 
part of a letter in which he communicates to a friend the 
sudden death of one of the Donelson youths. " The 
news," he says, " was a shock to my feelings. On these 
children I had built my hopes of happiness in my de- 
clining days. They have, somehow, always appeared as 
my own. How fleeting sublunary things, and how little 
ought they really to be estimated. He is gone — how 
I regret his suffering and want of medical aid. But if 
he is gone, he has left us this pleasing consolation, that 
he has not left a stain or blemish behind ever to bring 
a blush in the cheek of his surviving friends. They can 
reflect on him with pleasure, while they regret his un- 
timely exit. Prepare the mind of his tender mother 
for the shock before you communicate it, and keep from 
her knowledge, for the present, that he wanted for any- 
thing in his illness." 

The children of his great friend, Edward Livingston, 
were especial pets of his. " The general, calling one day 
upon Mrs. Livingston, during the New Orleans cam- 
paign, as was often his custom, found her in some con- 

202 



RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN 

cern for the safety of her absent husband. Her little 
daughter, too, began to whimper : 

" * When are you going to bring me back my father, 
General? The British will kill my father, and I shall 
never see my father any more,' said the child, sobbing. 

" The mighty man of war stepped down, and, patting 
the little girl upon the head, consoled her thus : 

" ' Don't cry, my child. If the British touch so much 
as a hair of your father's head. III hang Mitchell!' " * 

" Cora Livingston was the belle of Washington in 
President Jackson's day. It is pleasant to know that 
the grim and steadfast warrior, amid all the hurly-burly 
of the siege, found time to love and caress this little 
girl and win her heart. She sat in his lap and played 
around his high, splashed boots at headquarters while 
he was busied in the affairs of his great charge. All 
children loved this man, and liked to get very close to 
him and be noticed and fondled by him ; but none loved 
him better than this fair child, who saw him first when 
he was in his fiercest mood, worn with war, disease, and 
care. Nothing could exceed his tenderness to her. For 
her sake, and for the sake of those who loved her, he 
allowed one poor nag to repose in his stable while every 
other serviceable quadruped was hard at work in the 
soft mire and cold mist of the Delta." 

" The visitor," said one of his contemporaries, " then 
could often see the general seated in his rocking-chair, 
with a chubby boy wedged in on each side of him and a 
third, perhaps, in his lap, while he was trying to read the 
newspaper. This man, so irascible sometimes, and 
sometimes so savage, was never so much as impatient 
with children, wife, or servants. This was very remark- 
able. It used to astonish people who came for the first 

* A captured British officer and one who had earned the 
friendship of the Livingston family. 

203 






THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

time to the Hermitage to find that its master, of whose 
fierce ways and words they had heard so much, was, 
indeed, the gentlest and tenderest of men. They dis- 
covered, in fact, that there were two Jacksons : Jack- 
son militant and Jackson triumphant; Jackson crossed 
and Jackson having his own way ; Jackson, his master- 
ship unquestioned, and Jackson with a rival near the 
throne. 

" It was astonishing, too, to notice how instan- 
taneously he could change from one Jackson to the other. 
He was riding along one day with his wife when some 
careless wagoners drove their lumbering vehicle against 
his carriage, giving the lady a somewhat violent jerk. 
Instantly Jackson broke forth in a volley of execrations 
so fierce and terrific that the wagoners, who were them- 
selves the roughest of the rough, shrunk involuntarily 
under their wagon, amazed and speechless. They drove 
away without attempting to reply, feeling themselves 
hopelessly outdone in their own specialty." 

He was one of those rare men who are liked equally 
by both sexes. He could get along with any body of men 
and win their hearts, but he was never happier than 
when with young girls. " One of the traits best known 
to those most intimate with him in life, and little sus- 
pected by those who knew his character only from the 
pages of history, was an exceeding fondness for young 
girls and an almost boyish delight in their society. 
' They are the only friends I have,' he used to say, ' who 
never pester me with their ambitions or tire me with 
their advice !' All through his eight years in the White 
House there were coteries of bright schoolgirls ; daugh- 
ters of his personal friends or of members of his official 
household, whose visits he always anticipated with pleas- 
ure and enjoyed with youthful zest. Statesmen and 
diplomatists were many times left to survey the uninter- 
esting walls of the old Executive waiting-room while 

204 



RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN 

the President entertained or was entertained by a home 
bevy of misses in their teens downstairs." 

Nor did he allow his enmity against a man to include 
his children. " My father," writes a Nashville woman, 
" once gave a dinner-party to the daughter of Henry 
Clay, a visitor then at Nashville. Just as dinner was 
about to be announced who should arrive but the gen- 
eral and Mrs. Jackson! My poor mother was in con- 
sternation, for the general's wrath against Mr. Clay was 
notorious. At length, seeing no other course, she went 
to General Jackson and frankly stated her dilemma. 

" ' Madam,' said the general in his grandest style, ' I 
shall be delighted to meet Mr. Clay's daughter.' * 

" He entered the drawing-room and greeted the lady 
with peculiar warmth. He conducted her to the dining- 
room, sat beside her, and paid her the most marked 
attentions during the repast. The dinner passed off de- 
lightfully, every lady present adoring General Jackson, 
and we grateful to him beyond measure." 

Benton in his " Thirty Years' View" has preserved 
the following delightful reminiscence : " He was gentle 
in his house, and alive to the tenderest emotions ; and of 
this I can give an instance greatly to contrast with his 
supposed character, and worth more than a long dis- 
course in showing what that character really was. I 
arrived at his house one wet, chilly evening in February, 
and came upon him in twilight, sitting alone before the 
fire, a lamb and a child between his knees. He started a 
little, called a servant to remove the two innocents to 
another room, and explained to me how it was. The 
child had cried because the lamb was out in the cold 
and begged him to bring it in, which he had done to 
please the child, his adopted son, then not two years old. 
The ferocious man does not do that ! and though Jack- 

* How Rooseveltian ! 

205 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

son had his passions and his violence, they were for 
men and enemies — those who stood up against him — 
and not for women and children, the weak and helpless, 
for all whom his feelings were those of protection and 
support." 

Well does Sumner say, " This rough soldier, exposed 
all his life to those temptations which have conquered 
public men whom we still call good, could kiss little chil- 
dren with lips as pure as their own." 



206 



XI 

PUGNACITY — PATRIOTISM 

The reader will hardly have progressed thus far 
without having a very good idea of the temperament 
and characteristics of Jackson. That he was fearless, 
prompt in action, aggressive, passionate, and intolerant 
of contradiction is apparent. He manifested these quali- 
ties early and they increased as he grew older. 

" I could throw him three times out of four," an old 
schoolmate used to say, " but he would never stay 
throwed. He was dead game even then, and never 
would give up." In seventy-eight years of life this mili- 
tary and political Antaeus never learned to " stay 
throwed r 

There is another story of his youth, of some boys 
secretly loading a gun to the muzzle and giving it to 
young Jackson to fire off, that they might have the 
pleasure of seeing it " kick" him over. They had that 
pleasure. Springing up from the ground, the boy, in 
a frenzy of passion, exclaimed, " By G — d, if one of 
you laughs, I'll kill him !" 

Colonel Avery records this incident. One of the 
buildings in Jonesboro was on fire. There was no 
apparatus with which to combat the flames. The blaze 
had to be fought with the old-fashioned bucket line. 
Jackson, simply by virtue of his innate capacity, as- 
sumed charge of the battle with fire. In the midst of 
the fighting a drunken coppersmith named Boyd, who 
said that he had seen fires in Baltimore, began to give 
orders and annoy persons in the line. 

207 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" ' Fall into line !' shouted the general. 

" The man continued jabbering. Jackson seized a 
bucket by the handle, knocked him down, and walked 
along the line giving his orders as coolly as before. He 
saved the town !" What Boyd thought of the summary 
procedure is not recorded. Jackson probably dismissed 
the incident from his mind at once. His business, which 
he had assumed, was to put out the fire. Woe to any- 
one who interfered ! 

William Henderson wrote of him to Jefferson when 
Jackson was being mentioned as governor of Louisiana 
Territory : " I view him as a man of violent passions, 
arbitrary in his disposition, and frequently engaged in 
broils and disputes . . . He is a man of talents, and, 
were it not for those despotic principles, he might be a 
useful man." 

Another story by a contemporary for whom Parton 
vouches relates that after dinner one day Jackson was 
haranguing a multitude from the porch of the tavern 
with fearful vehemence, being evidently a little the 
worse for drink at the time. One of the opposition, 
passing at the moment, took advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to express his opinion of something that General 
Jackson said by shrugging his shoulders and exclaim- 
ing, " Pshaw !" Jackson paused in his speech and 
glanced over the crowd, seeking for the utterer of the 
contemptuous interjection, exclaiming, " Who dares to 

say pshaw to me? By , Fll knock any man's head 

off who says pshaw to me!" The offender discreetly 
walked on, and Jackson finished his after-dinner speech 
without further interruption. 

In truth, the old fighter feared nothing. After the 
execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, when the whole 
country was in a ferment and the Cabinet and both 
houses of Congress were talking of censure, Jackson 
was urged to do something or say something to mollify 

208 



PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM 

the prevalent excitement, to explain or to gloss over 
some of his acts, to shelter himself behind specious argu- 
ments, or in some way to turn the gathering storm from 
him and prevent it breaking upon his head. The 
British Cabinet and the British King v^ere behind the 
excitement, and to his timorous advisers Jackson made 
this doughty reply : "I am not afraid of monarchs ; I 
have done no wrong ; I will make no compromise with 
truth; I will tell it and prove it." 

When he was dying and the cause of the Democracy 
in a certain section seemed hopeless, a friend sought his 
advice as to what was the best course to pursue, the 
question being whether the speaker should stand for 
ofifice under practically impossible conditions or let the 
election go to the Republicans by default. " Stand," 
said the old no-compromise fighter lying on the bed 
from which he never arose ; " if there are only two 
Democrats in the country, let one run for the Legisla- 
ture and let the other one vote for him." 

Jackson himself defined his position, as he fancied it 
to be, with regard to quarrels and differences between 
gentlemen — he never had any with women — in the fol- 
lowing words : "... That I never wantonly sport with 
the feelings of innocence, nor am I awed into measures. 
If incautiously I inflict a wound, I always hasten to 
remove it ; if offence is taken where none is offered or 
intended, it gives me no pain. If a tale is listened to 
many days after the discourse should have taken place, 
when all parties are under the same roof, I always leave 
the persons to judge of the motives that induced the 
information, and leave them to draw their own con- 
clusions and act accordingly. There are certain traits 
that always accompany the gentleman and man of truth. 
The moment he hears harsh expressions applied to a 
friend, he will immediately communicate it, that ex- 
planation may take place, when the base poltroon and 
14 209, 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

cowardly tale-bearer will always act in the back- 
ground. ..." 

And even Parton admits that there is another side to 
that popularly held concerning Jackson's pugnacity and 
choler, for he writes — and it is rather a remarkable ad- 
mission for him : " He was a brave young man, without 
being in the slightest degree rash. If there ever lived 
a prudent man, Andrew Jackson was that individual. 
He dared much, but he never dared to attempt what the 
event showed he could not do. He was consummately 
prudent. We have heard a great deal about his irasci- 
bility, and he most assuredly was an irascible man. But 
he seldom quite gave up the rein of his anger. His 
wrath was a fiery nag, though; but people who stood 
close to him when he was foaming could see that there 
was a patent curb in his bridle which the rider had a 
quiet but firm hold of. It was a Scotch-Irish * anger, it 
was fierce, but never had any ill-effects upon his own 
purposes ; on the contrary, he made it serve him some- 
times by seeming to be much more angry than he was — 
a way with others of the same race. ' No man,' wrote 
an intimate associate of his for forty years, ' knew better 
than Andrew Jackson when to get into a passion and 
when not.' Yet for all that he was a most tender-like 
and touchy fellow." 

And Mrs. James K. Polk goes very far in the other 
direction in the following testimony : " Of some men 
you will hear it said that they were either for or against 
something. General Jackson was always for something. 
Of course, in being for one thing he always must be 
against some other thing, its opposite or antithesis. But 
the ' being for' was what filled his soul. The being 
against was secondary or incidental — necessary and un- 
avoidable, as a rule. But nothing ever delighted him 

* Again ! 

210 



PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM 

so much as to find the thing he was for unopposed. 
Everybody will tell you that he liked to fight for fight- 
ing's sake. As one who knew him from childhood, one 
who when a mere child sat on his knee, in the days 
when most of his repute was that of a fighting man, 
I tell you he fought, not for fighting's sake, but for 
the sake of the cause or the woman he revered and 
loved." 

Sumner rather aptly puts the extreme of the other 
side when he declares that " instead of making peace he 
exhausted all the chances of conflict which offered 
themselves. He was remarkably genial and gentle when 
things went on to suit him and when he was satisfied 
with his companions. He was very chivalrous about 
taking up the cause of any one who was unjustly treated 
and dependent. Yet he was combative, and pugnacious, 
and over-ready to adjust himself for a hostile collision 
whenever there was any real or fancied occasion." 

When we read the chronicles of those border States 
and towns it is hard to see how a peaceable, orderly, 
law-abiding man could get along at all. The settled 
habits of older communities were yet in abeyance, the 
social amenities of the present did not then obtain, and 
a man had to fight for anything and everything he got, 
apparently ; that is, if he amounted to anything. The 
" code" with its resulting duel was the principal check 
upon the lawless and the overbearing. Be it remem- 
bered that even in modern days the chief authority on 
the subject counsels the carrying of the " big stick," a 
national " big stick," which, of course, implies an in- 
dividual " big stick." To be sure, the injunction is 
coupled with advice to tread softly, but it takes a very 
soft tread indeed to carry the " big stick" peacefully. 
And Jackson, from this point of view, had a very firm 
and vigorous footstep, not to say a resounding tread ! 
Here are two stories which are characteristic. 

211 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" Now, sir," said the general on one occasion, talk- 
ing to another friend, " if any one attacks you, I know 
how you'll fight with that big stick of yours. You'll 
aim right for his head. Well, sir, ten chances to one 
he'll ward it off; and if you do hit him, you won't 
bring him down. No, sir" (taking the stick into his 
own hands), "you hold the stick so and punch him 
in the stomach, and you'll drop him. I'll tell you how I 
found that out. When I was a young man practising 
law in Tennessee there was a big, bullying fellow that 
wanted to quarrel with me, and so trod on my toes. 
Supposing it accidental, I said nothing. Soon after he 
did it again, and I began to suspect his object. In a 
few minutes he came by a third time, pushing against 
me violently and evidently meaning Ught. He was a 
man of immense size, one of the very biggest men I ever 
saw. As quick as a flash, I snatched a small rail from 
the top of the fence and gave him the point of it full in 
the stomach. Sir, it doubled him up. He fell at my 
feet and I stamped on him. Soon he got up savage and 
was about to fly at me like a tiger. The bystanders 
made as though they would interfere. Says I, * Gentle- 
men, stand back, give me room, that's all I ask, and Fll 
manage him.' With that I stood ready with the rail 
pointed. He gave me one look and turned away, a 
whipped man, sir, and feeling like one. So, sir, I say 
to you, if any villain assaults you, give him the point 
in his belly." 

And the other good stick story is still told in Ten- 
nessee. A certain ferry across the Cumberland had 
been leased for the sum of one hundred dollars per 
annum. At a meeting of the trustees of the Academy 
General Daniel Smith, a member, remarked, " Why, 
that is enough to pay the ferriage of all the trustees 
over the river Styx." 

"Sticks?" replied Jackson, not understanding the 

212 



PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM 

classical allusion, undoubtedly, " I want but one stick to 
make my way." 

Here are two other amusing anecdotes : "As Gen- 
eral Jackson was riding along the lonely wilderness road 
between Nashville and Knoxville one day he was hailed 
by two burly wagoners, who ordered him to get out of 
his carriage and dance for them. Feigning simplicity, 
he said he could not dance without slippers, and his 
slippers were in a trunk strapped behind his carriage. 
They told him to get his slippers. He opened the trunk, 
took out a pair of pistols, and advancing before them 
with one in each hand, said, with that awful glare in 
his eyes before which few men could stand: 

" ' Now, you infernal villains, you shall dance for me. 
Dance! Dance!'" 

" He made them dance in the most lively manner, and 
finished the interview by giving them a moral lecture, 
couched in language that wagoners understood, and de- 
livered with — energy." 

" That curious tobacco-box story," writes Parton, " is 
still often told in Tennessee, and, probably founded on 
truth, if not wholly true, illustrates the same trait. The 
incident occurred at Clover Bottom on the great day of 
the races, when the ground was crowded with men and 
horses. It was customary for the landlord of the tavern 
there to prepare a table in the open air, two hundred 
feet long, for the accommodation of the multitude 
attending. On the day alluded to, several races having 
been run, there was a pause for dinner, which pause 
was duly improved. The long table was full of eager 
diners. General Jackson presiding at one end, a large 
number of men standing along the sides of the table 
waiting for a chance to sit down, and all the negroes of 
the neighborhood employed as waiters who could look 
at a plate without its breaking itself. A roaring tornado 
of horse-talk half drowned the mighty clatter of knives 

213 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

and forks. After the dinner had proceeded awhile it 
was observed by General Jackson and those who sat 
near him that something was the matter near the other 
end of the table — a fight, probably. There was a rust- 
ling together of men and evident excitement. Now, 
' difficulties' of this kind were so common at that day, 
whenever large numbers of men were gathered together, 
that the disturbance was little more than mentioned, if 
alluded to at all, at Jackson's end of the table, where 
sat the magnates of the race. At length some one in 
passing by was heard to say, in evident allusion to the 
difficulty, — 

" ' They'll finish Patten Anderson this time, I do ex- 
pect.' 

" The whole truth flashed upon Jackson, and he 
sprang up like a man galvanized. How to get to the 
instant rescue of his friend ! To force a path through 
the crowd along the sides of the table would have taken 
time. A moment later and the tall general might haVe 
been seen striding towards the scene of danger on the 
top of the table, wading through the dishes, and caus- 
ing hungry men to pause astounded with morsels sus- 
pended in air. As he neared the crowd, putting his 
hand behind him into his coat-pocket — an ominous 
movement in those days and susceptible of but one in- 
terpretation — he opened his tobacco-box and shut it 
with a click so loud that it was heard by one of the 
bystanders. 

" ' I'm coming. Patten !' roared the general. 

" ' Don't fire !' cried one of the spectators. 

" The cry of don't fire caught the ears of the hostile 
crowd , who looked up and saw the mad general 
striding towards them with his right hand behind him 
and slaughter depicted in every lineament of his coun- 
tenance. They scattered simultaneously, leaving An- 
derson alone and unharmed !" 

214 



PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM 

Some further incidents of Jackson's pugnacity may 
be found in the chapter upon his duels. 

The characteristic above all others, however, that dis- 
tinguished Jackson was his patriotism. I do not be- 
lieve that any man ever born under the American flag 
had more love for his country than Jackson. As has 
been pointed out, he was the first real President of, or 
from, the people, and they idolized him with a devotion 
which has been accorded to no other man. The amusing 
story that for years after his death the backwoods dis- 
tricts continued to vote for him is typical of the adora- 
tion with which he was viewed. Yet there is no record 
that he ever overstepped the prerogatives of his office or 
that he ever took advantage of his popularity for his own 
ends. On the contrary. It is true that his was a per- 
sonal government. His Cabinet in some degree re- 
sembled a military stafif. The Secretaries were expected 
to carry out their chief's orders, and advice was not to 
be tendered unless demanded, and cautiously even then. 
But this did not arise from any Napoleonic dream of 
supreme authority, — any tending towards Csesarism, to 
use a term which American political habit has made 
understandable, — but from a high sense of personal 
responsibility in the mind of Jackson, not to any body 
of statesmen, or to any self-constituted organization, 
but to the whole people, who had elected him with 
an enthusiasm and a unanimity with which they had 
voted for no other President before and have voted for 
few Presidents since. He felt himself personally respon- 
sible to the people, and from his point of view that re- 
sponsibility could only be discharged by himself alone. 
Never in our history have the Cabinet officers cut so 
little of a figure as in Jackson's two administrations. 
If they were not ready to do absolutely what he wished, 
he removed them and appointed others who would, 
repeating the process if necessary ; but no one has ever 

215 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

suggested that he was actuated by any but the most 
patriotic motives. 

When he was alarmed by the threat of the Burr expe- 
dition he wrote to Governor Claiborne these prophetic 
words : " I love my country and my government. I hate 
the Dons ; I would delight to see Mexico reduced ; but 
I will die in the last ditch before I will yield a foot to 
the Dons or see the Union disunited. This I write for 
your own eyes and for your own safety; profit by it, 
and the ides of March remember," It was undoubtedly 
his true patriotism that made him take the stand he took 
in the nullification troubles, discussed later. 

And it is. easy to see how and why Jackson loved his 
country. He suffered for it during the most impression- 
able part of his life. He fought for it while he was yet 
a boy. In a sense he was born into manhood with it. 
It takes trial, danger, struggle, to develop the highest 
patriotism. It should not be so. The patriotism of 
peace should be as great as that of war. The civic 
demand upon the virtues of the sons and daughters of 
the commonwealth should be as great and as compelling 
as the martial demand, but in times of peace men are 
apt to forget what the flag stands for, and it is not 
until it is actually assailed that men realize the measure 
of devotion to it. The insidious attacks upon our liber- 
ties involved in certain modern political methods evoke 
but a languid response, but let any one haul down the 
American flag and we are ready to " shoot him on the 
spot!" The men who have fought for their country 
love it best. The battle which closes many eyes and 
stills many hearts, yet opens the eyes and quickens the 
souls of those who survive. As man and boy Jackson 
had fought for his country. He had grown up with it. 
He had seen it develop from a handful of struggling, 
disunited, heterogeneous, antagonistic political organi- 
zations into a great, rapidly-growing state, a homeo- 

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PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM 

geneous nation, with infinite possibilities before it. His 
ambition always was to serve it, to develop it. And 
Jackson cherished a healthy hatred of Great Britain as 
the natural enemy of the United States which begot a 
corresponding regard for what Great Britain had so 
persistently opposed and antagonized. Had Jackson 
been President when the question was up for final de- 
cision, the northwest boundary would never have been 
settled by the compromise which deprived us of what 
is now British Columbia, which was justly our own. 
The line would have been 54°4o' or there would have 
been a fight indeed. 

When Lafayette visited the Hermitage General Jack- 
son handed a certain pair of pistols to the Frenchman 
and asked him if he recognized them : " Lafayette, after 
examining them attentively for a few minutes, replied 
that he fully recollected them to be a pair he had pre- 
sented in 1778 to his paternal friend, Washington, and 
that he experienced a real satisfaction in finding them 
in the hands of one so worthy of possessing them. At 
these words the face of ' Old Hickory' was covered with 
a modest blush, and his eyes sparkled as in a day of 
victory. 

" ' Yes, I believe myself to be worthy of them,' ex- 
claimed he in pressing the pistols and Lafayette's hands 
to his breast, ' if not from what I have done, at least 
for what I wished to do for my country.' " 

The venerable Mr. Niles in his famous Register had 
this to say regarding Jackson's patriotism : " General 
Jackson is a more extraordinary person than has ever 
appeared in our history. Nature has seldom gifted man 
with a mind so powerful and comprehensive, or a body 
better formed for activity or capable of enduring greater 
privations, fatigue, and hardships. She has been equally 
kind to him in the quality of his heart. 

" General Jackson has no ambition but for the good of 

217 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

his country; it occupies the whole of his views to the 
exclusion of. all selfish or ignoble considerations. 
Cradled in the War of the Revolution, nurtured amid 
the conflicts that afterwards took place between the 
Cherokee Indians and the Tennesseans, being always 
among a people who regard the application of force 
not as the ultima ratio reguni, but as the first resort 
of individuals, and who look upon courage as the 
greatest of human attributes, his character on this 
stormy ocean has acquired an extraordinary cast of 
vigor — a belief that anything within the power of man 
to accomplish we should never despair of effecting, 
and a conviction that courage, activity, and perse- 
verance can overcome what to an ordinary mind would 
appear insuperable obstacles. In society he is kind, 
frank, unaffected, and hospitable, endowed with such 
natural grace and politeness, without the mechanical 
gentility and artificial, flimsy polish to be found in 
fashionable life." 

This discussion cannot be better closed than by 
quoting the remarks of Daniel Webster to Thurlow 
Weed, who had asked him what was his general esti- 
mate of Jackson, his summary of his character as judged 
by his career. Mr. Weed, being in New York, chanced 
to meet Mr. Webster in the street, and there put the 
question to him. 

" Mr. Webster replied : ' General Jackson is an hon- 
est and upright man. He does what he thinks is right, 
and does it with all his might. He has a violent temper, 
which leads him often to hasty conclusions. It also 
causes him to view as personal to himself the public acts 
of other men. For this reason there is a great difference 
between Jackson angry and Jackson in good-humor. 
When he is calm, his judgment is good ; when angry, it 
is usually bad. I will illustrate, Mr. Weed, by quoting 
Jackson himself. On a certain occasion he advised a 

218 



PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM 

young friend of his to ' take all the time for thinking 
that circumstances would permit, but when the time for 
action came to stop thinking !' Now, my observation of 
him leads me to believe that he ' stops thinking,' as a 
rule, a little too soon, and is apt to decide prematurely 
that ' the time for action' has come. These traits have 
led him into most of his errors in public life. His 
patriotism is no more to be questioned than that of 
Washington. He is the greatest general we have, and, 
except Washington, the greatest we ever had." 

Daniel Webster, it must be remembered, was a life- 
time political antagonist of Jackson's, although the 
enmity between them did not degenerate into the bitter 
personal hatred which was engendered between Jackson 
and Henry Clay. 



219 



XII 

DUELS AND QUARRELS 

Jackson's duels, quarrels, and personal encounters 
with different people were too numerous for all of 
them to be described in detail in a work of this kind. To 
select the most important and characteristic is sufficient. 
He began early. When but fifteen years of age, a bully- 
ing American officer named Galbraith threatened to 
thrash him for some fancied dereliction. Jackson coolly 
warned the officer not to attempt to carry out his pur- 
poses, for if a hand was laid upon him, he swore, he 
would shoot Galbraith dead ! 

The most famous of his early duels was that with 
Colonel Avery. By permission of Mr. F. A. Old, the 
author, and of Harper's Weekly, in which the article 
appeared, I quote here an original account of the affair : 

" The writer has secured from ex-Associate Justice A. 
C. Avery, of Morganton, North Carolina, a document 
which is of very marked interest. It is a challenge to 
a duel sent by General Andrew Jackson to Colonel 
Waightstill Avery, the grandfather of ex- Judge Avery. 
Both Jackson and Avery were men of the highest 
degree of bravery, and, in fact, it has been said that 
neither knew what fear was. There are some errors 
in spelling in the challenge, and in the date, which 
is August 3, 1788. The challenge has a postscript, and, 
like the postscript of a woman's letter, it is short, but 
one of the most important parts of the document. 

" In those days in North Carolina there were large 
gatherings at the courts, and the tilts between counsel 
were listened to with great eagerness. In this case there 

220 




ANDREW JACKSON 

) From the portrait by J. Vanderlyn in City Hall, New York City, 

painted in 1823 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

was a large audience, and Colonel Avery, who had fig- 
ured in the War of the Revolution and in the troubles 
with the Indians on the western border, used language 
which Jackson took to be insulting. The challenge is 
in these words : 

'"When a man's feelings & character are injured he ought 
to seek a speedy redress ; you reed a few lines from me yes- 
terday & undoubtedly you understand me. My character you 
have Injured ; and further you have Insuhed me in the presence 
of a court and a larg audience. I therefor call upon you as a 
gentleman to give me satisfaction for the same. I further call 
upon you to give me an answer immediately without Equivo- 
cation and I hope you can do without dinner until the business 
is done; for it is consistent with the character of a gentleman 
when he Injures a man to make a speedy reparation; therefore 
I hope you will not fail in meeting me this day from yr Hbl. St. 

" ' Yrs., 

" ' Andw. Jackson. 

" ' Col. Avery. 

P. S.— This Evening after court has adjourned.' 



il i 



" The facts relating to the trouble between Jackson 
and Avery were told to Colonel A. C. Avery by his 
father, Colonel Isaac T. Avery, who was the only son of 
Waightstill Avery. When the latter practised law in 
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, he and young 
Jackson were well acquainted. Avery was elected, in 
1777, the first Attorney-General of North Carolina. He 
afterwards married a lady who lived near Newberne, 
in Jones County, and soon after this marriage resigned 
and settled in Jones, becoming colonel of that county's 
regiment of militia. ... At the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War Andrew Jackson went to Burke County and 
applied to Waightstill Avery to take him as a boarder 
at his country home and instruct him as a law student. 
Colonel Avery told him he had just moved to the place 
and had built nothing but cabins, and could not grant 
his request. Jackson went to Salisbury, studied law 

221 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

there, and settled at Jonesboro until the new county of 
Davidson (with Nashville as the county-seat) was 
established, Nashville becoming subsequently the capital 
of Tennessee. 

" Just before the challenge to fight was sent by Jack- 
son Avery appeared in some lawsuit at Jonesboro as 
opposing counsel to Jackson, and ridiculed the position 
taken by Jackson, who had preceded him in the argu- 
ment. Jackson considered the argument insulting and 
sent him the challenge. Colonel Avery was raised a 
Puritan. He graduated at Princeton with the highest 
honors in 1766, and remained there a year as a tutor 
under the celebrated Jonathan Edwards and the famous 
Dr. Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of In- 
dependence as a representative of New Jersey. Avery 
was a Presbyterian and was opposed on principle to 
duelling, but he so far yielded to the imperious custom 
of the time as to accept the challenge and go to the 
field, with Colonel, afterwards Governor, Adair, of Ken- 
tucky, as his second. 

" After the usual preliminaries he allowed Jackson to 
shoot at him, but did not return the fire. Thereupon, 
having shown that he was not afraid to be shot at, Avery 
walked up to young Jackson and delivered a lecture to 
him, very much in the style a father would use in lec- 
turing a son. Avery was very calm, and his talk to the 
brave young man who had fired at him was full of good 
sense, dispassionate, and high in tone, and was heard 
with great attention by the seconds of both parties, who 
agreed that the trouble must go no farther, but should 
end at this point, and so then and there a reconciliation 
was effected between these two brave spirits. 

" Colonel Avery took the challenge home and filed it, 
as he was accustomed to file all his letters and papers, 
endorsing it, ' Challenge from Andrew Jackson.' This 
endorsement appears upon the back of the paper." 

222 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

It must be noted that this Avery quarrel was not about 
Mrs. Jackson, and that Jackson and Avery were ever 
afterwards very good friends. Thus it may be seen that 
Jackson's enmities were not invariably inveterate, as has 
been alleged ; that he was magnanimous when proved 
wrong, and that he did not bear malice, nursing a quar- 
rel until it became festering hatred. 

The embroglio with John Sevier was of a different 
character, although, fortunately, the results were equally 
bloodless. In 1796 Sevier was elected Governor of Ten- 
nessee. He had been major-general of the militia, 
Jackson suggested that he resign his military office, 
as the governor was ex-officio commander-in-chief, and 
allow him to be elected thereto. Even then the young 
attorney thought more of military glory than of forensic 
triumphs. Sevier refused. A quarrel developed, and 
Sevier declined Jackson's challenge on the ground of 
his poverty, his numerous family, and because he 
claimed that his reputation for courage was so well 
assured by his long and brilliant career that he did not 
have to fight to maintain it, which was true. 

There was no reconciliation between the two men, 
and when, sometime afterwards, they met in Knoxville 
they at once engaged in an altercation in which Jackson 
happened to mention his services to the State. " Ser- 
vices !" thundered Sevier contemptuously. " I know of 
no great service you have rendered the country except 
taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife !" 
" Great God !" cried Jackson, " do you dare mention 
her sacred name?" Both men immediately opened fire. 
Several shots were exchanged. One bystander was 
grazed but no one was severely hurt. The feud slum- 
bered on and finally culminated in this farcical manner, 
according to Parton: 

" The two doughty fighters met at Knoxville in 1803. 
A wild altercation ensued, in the course of which, it 

223 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

is said, Sevier frequently defied Jackson to mortal com- 
bat. They separated at length, and Jackson sent the 
governor a challenge, which was accepted ; but as they 
could not agree as to the time and place of meeting, 
the negotiation ended by Jackson suddenly posting 
Sevier as a coward — the absurd act of an angry man. 

" In those mad, fighting times there was in vogue, 
besides the duel, a kind of informal combat, which was 
resorted to when the details of a duel could not be 
arranged. A man might refuse the * satisfaction' of a 
duel, and yet hold himself bound to meet his antagonist 
at a certain time and place, either alone or accompanied, 
and ' have it out' with him in a rough-and-tumble fight. 
So on this occasion there was an ' understanding' that 
the belligerents were to meet at a designated point just 
beyond the borders of the State. Jackson was there at 
the appointed time, accompanied by one friend. The 
governor, accidentally detained, did not arrive in time. 
Jackson waited near the spot for two days ; but no irate 
governor appearing above the horizon, he determined 
to return to Knoxville and compel Sevier to a hostile 
interview. 

" He had not gone a mile towards the capital before 
he descried Governor Sevier approaching on horseback, 
accompanied by mounted men. Reining in his steed, he 
sent his friend forward to convey to Sevier a letter 
which he had prepared during the two days of waiting, 
in which he recounted their differences from the begin- 
ning, stating wherein he conceived himself to have been 
injured. Sevier declined to receive the letter. On 
learning this Jackson appeared to lose all patience, and 
resolved to end the matter then and there, cost what 
it might. He rode slowly towards the governor's party 
until he was within a hundred yards of them. Then, 
levelling his cane, as knights of old were wont to level 
their lances, he struck spurs into his horse and galloped 

224 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

furiously at the governor. Sevier, astounded at this 
tremendous apparition, and intending, if he fought at all, 
to fight fairly and on terra Urma, dismounted, but in 
so doing stepped upon the scabbard of his sword and 
fell prostrate under his horse. Jackson, seeing his 
enemy thus vanish from his sight, reined in his own 
fiery steed and gave time for the governor's friends to 
get between them and prevent a conflict. Through the 
efforts of some gentlemen in Sevier's party who were 
friends of both the belligerents the affair was patched up 
upon the spot, and the whole party rode towards Knox- 
ville together in amity. Nor was there any renewal of 
the combat. The anger of the antagonists and their 
friends found vent in newspaper statements, and after 
a brief paper war exhausted itself." 

Why Jackson permitted the affair to end it is difficult 
to understand, for he usually had no mercy towards 
any one who aspersed the name of his wife. Sevier was 
an old man at the time, however, and possibly the young 
fire-eater for once thought that he had done enough. 

The most serious in its consequences of Jackson's 
duels was that with Charles Dickinson in 1806. Here 
again Jackson's enmity against Dickinson was aroused 
by his slurs upon Mrs. Jackson. Dickinson apologized 
for them, claiming that he was in his " cups" when he 
uttered them, but he nevertheless repeated them again 
in various insinuating ways. The ostensible cause of 
the quarrel was a difficulty about a horse-race com- 
plicated by political conditions, during which Jackson 
refused the challenge of a certain Thomas Swann, one 
of Dickinson's friends ; but there is no doubt that at 
the bottom Dickinson's slanderous remarks about his 
wife had aroused Jackson's hatred and wrath. On the 
other side, Dickinson apparently was determined upon 
the quarrel because Jackson stood in the way of his 
ambitions for political preferment in Tennessee. Dick- 
15 225 




THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

inson was a young man of excellent family and brilliant 
parts, who had been born in Maryland but had removed 
to Tennessee. The meeting took place on the banks of a 
small stream near the Red River, in a sequestered wood- 
land glade, in Logan County, Kentucky, a day's ride 
south from Nashville. Perhaps the most dramatic and 
famous chapter in Parton's delightful biography is that 
devoted to this duel. I quote a large part of it, first 
inserting the memorandum of agreement between the 
two seconds regarding the affair. 

~ " MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT. 

" It is agreed that the distance shall be twenty-four feet ; the 
parties to stand facing each other, with their pistols down 
perpendicularly. 

" When they are ready, the single word Hre! to be given; at 

which they are to fire as soon as they please. Should either lire 

before the word is given we pledge ourselves to shoot him 

down instantly. The choice of position shall be decided by lot 

on the field, as likewise the person to give the word. 

* " We mutually agree that the above regulations shall govern 

\ the affair of honor impending between General Andrew Jackson 

\ and Charles Dickinson, Esquire. 

(Signed) "Thomas Overton (for A. Jackson), 

"Hanson Catlett (for C. Dickinson)." 

" A tavern kept by one David Miller, somewhat noted 
in the neighborhood, stood on the banks of the Red 
River, near the ground appointed for the duel. Late 
in the afternoon of Thursday, the twenty-ninth of May, 
the inmates of this tavern were surprised by the arrival 
of a party of seven or eight horsemen. Jacob Smith, 
then employed by Miller as an overseer, but now him- 
self a planter in the vicinity, was standing before the 
house when this unexpected company rode up. One of 
these horsemen asked if they could be accommodated 
with lodgings for the night. They could. The party 
dismounted, gave their horses to the attendant negroes, 
and entered the tavern. No sooner had they done so 
than honest Jacob was perplexed by the arrival of a 

226 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

second cavalcade — Dickinson and his friends, who also 
asked for lodgings. The manager told them the house 
was full, but that he never turned travellers away, and 
if they chose to remain he would do the best he could 
for them. Dickinson then asked where was the next 
house of entertainment. He was directed to a house 
two miles lower down the river kept by William Har- 
rison. The house is still standing. The room in which 
Dickinson slept that night, and slept the night following, 
is the one now used by the occupants as a dining-room. 

" Jackson ate heartily at supper that night, conversing 
in a lively, pleasant manner, and smoked his evening 
pipe as usual. Jacob Smith remembers being exceed- 
ingly pleased with his guest, and, on learning the cause 
of his visit, heartily wishing him a safe deliverance. 

" Before breakfast on the next morning the whole 
party mounted and rode down the road, that wound close 
along the picturesque banks of the stream. 

" About the same hour the overseer and his gang of 
negroes went to the fields to begin their daily toil, he 
longing to venture within sight of what he knew was 
about to take place. 

" The horsemen rode about a mile along the river, 
then turned down towards the river to a point on the 
bank where they had expected to find a ferryman. No 
ferryman appearing, Jackson spurred his horse into the 
stream and dashed across, followed by all his party. 
They rode into the poplar forest, two hundred yards or 
less, to a spot near the centre of a level platform or 
river bottom, then covered with forest, now smiling with 
cultivated fields. The horsemen halted and dismounted 
just before reaching the appointed place. Jackson, 
Overton, and a surgeon who had come with them from 
home walked on together, and the rest led their horses 
a short distance in an opposite direction. 

" How do you feel about it now, General ?' asked one 
of the party as Jackson turned to go, 

" Oh, all right,' replied Jackson gayly ; * I shall wing 
him, never fear.' 

" Dickinson's second won the choice of position, and 

227 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Jackson's the office of giving the word. The astute 
Overton considered this giving of the word a matter of 
great importance, and he had already determined how 
he would give it if the lot fell to him. The eight paces 
were measured off and the men placed. Both were 
perfectly collected. All the politenesses of such occa- 
sions were very strictly and elegantly performed. Jack- 
son was dressed in a loose frock-coat, buttoned care- 
lessly over his chest, and concealing in some degree the 
extreme slenderness of his figure. Dickinson was the 
younger and handsomer man of the two. But Jackson's 
tall, erect figure, and the still intensity of his demeanor, 
it is said, gave him a most superior and commanding air 
as he stood under the tall poplars on this bright May 
morning, silently awaiting the moment of doom. 

" ' Are you ready ?'said Overton. 

" ' I am ready,' replied Dickinson. 

" ' I am ready,' said Jackson. 

" The words were no sooner pronounced than Over- 
ton, with a sudden shout, cried, using his old-country 
pronunciation, — 

" ' Fere!' 

" Dickinson raised his pistol quickly and fired. Over- 
ton, who was looking with anxiety and dread at Jackson, 
saw a puff of dust fly from the breast of his coat, and 
saw him raise his left arm, and place it tightly across 
his chest. He is surely hit, thought Overton, and in a 
bad place, too ; but no, he does not fall. Erect and 
grim as Fate he stood, his teeth clenched, raising his 
pistol. Overton glanced at Dickinson. Amazed at the 
unwonted failure of his aim, and apparently appalled at 
the awful figure and face before him, Dickinson had 
unconsciously recoiled a pace or two. 

" ' Great God !' he faltered, ' have I missed him ?' 

" ' Back to the mark, sir !' shrieked Overton, with his 
hand upon his pistol. 

" Dickinson recovered his composure, stepped forward 
to the peg, and stood with his eyes averted from his 
antagonist. All this was the work of a moment, though 
it requires many words to tell it. 

22S 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

" General Jackson took deliberate aim and pulled the 
trigger. The pistol neither snapped nor went off. He 
looked at the trigger and discovered that it had stopped 
at half cock. He drew it back to its place and took 
aim a second time. He fired. Dickinson's face 
blanched ; he reeled ; his friends rushed towards him, 
caught him in their arms, and gently seated him on the 
ground, leaning against a bush. His trowsers reddened. 
They stripped off his clothes. The blood was gushing 
from his side in a torrent. And, alas ! here is the ball, 
not near the wound, but above the opposite hip, just 
under the skin. The ball had passed through the body, 
below the ribs. Such a wound could not but be fatal. 

" Overton went forward and learned the condition of 
the wounded man. Rejoining his principal, he said, * He 
won't want anything more of you, General,' and con- 
ducted him from the ground. They had gone a hundred 
yards, Overton walking on one side of Jackson, the 
surgeon on the other, and neither speaking a word, 
when the surgeon observed that one of Jackson's shoes 
was full of blood. 

" ' My God! General Jackson, are you hit?' he ex- 
claimed, pointing to the blood. 

" ' Oh ! I believe,' replied Jackson, ' that he has pinked 
me a little. Let's look at it. But say nothing about it 
there,' pointing to the house. 

" He opened his coat. Dickinson's aim had been per- 
fect. He had sent the ball precisely where he supposed 
Jackson's heart was beating. But the thinness of his 
body and the looseness of his coat combining to deceive 
Dickinson, the ball had only broken a rib or two and 
raked the breast-bone. It was a somewhat painful, 
bad-looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous, 
and he was able to ride to the tavern without much in- 
convenience. Upon approaching the house he went up 
to one of the negro women, who was churning, and 
asked her if the butter had come. She said it was just 
coming. He asked for some buttermilk. While she 
was getting it for him she observed him furtively open 
his coat and look within. She saw that his shirt was 

229 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

soaked with blood, and she stood gazing in blank horror 
at the sight, dipper in hand. He caught her eye and 
hastily buttoned his coat again. She dipped out a quart 
measure full of buttermilk and gave it to him. He 
drank it off at a draught, then went in, took off his 
coat, and had his wound carefully examined and dressed. 
That done, he dispatched one of his retinue to Dr. Cat- 
lett to inquire respecting the condition of Dickinson and 
to say that the surgeon attending himself would be 
glad to contribute his aid towards Dickinson's relief. 
Polite reply was returned that Dickinson's case was past 
surgery. In the course of the day General Jackson 
sent a bottle of wine to Doctor Catlett for the use of his 
patient. 

" But there was one gratification which Jackson could 
not, even in such circumstances, grant him. A very old 
friend of General Jackson writes to me thus : 

" * Although the general had been wounded, he did 
not desire it should be known until he had left the neigh- 
borhood, and had therefore concealed it at first from 
his own friends. His reason for this, as he once stated 
to me, was, that as Dickinson considered himself 
the best shot in the world, and was certain of killing 
him at the first fire, he did not want him to have the 
gratification even of knowing that he had touched 
him.' 

" Poor Dickinson bled to death. The flowing of blood 
was stanched, but could not be stopped. He was con- 
veyed to the house in which he had passed the night and 
placed upon a mattress, which was soon drenched with 
blood. He suffered extreme agony, and uttered horrible 
cries all that long day. At nine o'clock in the evening 
he suddenly asked why they had put out the lights. The 
doctor knew then that the end was at hand; that the 
wife, who had been sent for in the morning, would not 
arrive in time to close her husband's eyes. He died five 
minutes after, cursing, it is said, with his last breath 
the ball that had entered his body. The poor wife hur- 
ried away on learning that her husband was ' danger- 
ously wounded,' and met, as she rode towards the scene 

230 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

of the duel, a procession of silent horsemen escorting a 
rough emigrant wagon that contained her husband's 
remains." 

Buell disputes certain statements in Parton's account 
while in the main agreeing with it. He also quotes 
from General Overton's narrative and declines to admit 
Dickinson's famous remark, " Great God, have I missed 
him?" Nor does he think it probable that Jackson's 
pistol stopped at half cock and that the weapon had to 
be re-cocked before it was discharged at the waiting 
"Dickinson, These are not matters of much moment. 
The facts of the duel stand substantially as they have 
been narrated. Parton says : 

" To the day of his death, General Jackson preserved 
the duelling-pistols with one of which he had slain the 
hapless Dickinson. That very pistol was lying on the 
mantel-piece of his bedroom during those last years of 
his life. To a gentleman who chanced to take it up 
one day the general said, in the most ordinary tone of 
conversation, ' That is the pistol with which I killed 
Mr. Dickinson.' " 

Buell states that ex-President Andrew Johnson in con- 
versation with him branded this story as a " damned 
lie," and that Johnson declared that when Jackson was 
asked about the pistols he would reply, '* They are those 
used in the Dickinson affair." Johnson declared that 
he had heard Jackson say this many times. Buell also 
calls attention in a note to the following statement by 
Colonel W. H. H. Terrell in his ''History of Noted 
Duels :" 

" Dickinson lived through the day and until a few 
minutes to ten that night. Jackson's ounce ball had 
lacerated his intestines beyond hope of cure. In fact, 
his endurance of the wound fourteen hours was a marvel 
of physical strength and fortitude. Ninety-nine out of 
a hundred men would have dieci at once from the shock 

231 I 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

and paralysis of such a wound. So far as the pain was 
concerned, he bore it without flinching, but bitterly 
cursed his ill-luck almost with his last breath. He re- 
mained conscious to the last, and the first intimation he 
gave of collapse was his question to the doctor, ' Why 
do you put out the candles ?' thereby indicating that his 
vision had failed. His last moments, however, were 
soothed by a report, brought to him from Harrison's, 
that General Jackson had been shot through the breast 
and was sinking rapidly. He died fully believing that 
his antagonist must soon follow him to the tomb." 

Possibly the most interesting of Jackson's many en- 
counters was the affray — it can hardly be called a duel 
— with Thomas and Jesse Benton. Jesse Benton chal- 
lenged Jackson's old friend and comrade in arms Car- 
roll for some cause feminine with which we have 
nothing to do save to note \that Carroll seemed to be in 
the wrong. Carroll asked^ Jackson to be his second. 
The general declared that he was done with duelling 
and did not desire to accept the office. However, as 
representing Carroll, he sawj Jesse Benton and tried to 
compose the quarrel, going ko far as to induce Carroll 
— who was the aggressor— 4to sign an apology which 
Jackson dictated. Althougm the apology was complete 
and ample and should havje been satisfactory, Benton 
finally refused to accept it, persuaded thereto by one 
Ervin, a brother-in-law of Dickinson, who was mixed 
up in the affair as the friend — and evil genius — of Jesse 
Benton. 

Jackson was doubly angered by the interjection of the 
Dickinson family and by Jesse Benton's refusal to 
accept the apology in th^ terms Jackson had presented. 
Benton, urged by the ^'Dickinson faction, finally de- 
manded that Carroll publ'icly acknowledge himself a liar. 
Jackson saw no way to| prevent a meeting after that. 
Jesse Benton was wounded through his posterior region. 

' 232 




THOMAS H. BENTON ,^:T. ABOUT 35 

From a painting by Wilson Peale in the Missouri Historical Society. 
From " The Life of Thomas Hart Benton," by William M. Meigs 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

The affair would have been settled had not the wits 
of the day made great fun of Benton. 

The Dickinson faction seized the opportunity pre- 
sented to try to get Jackson put out of the way. There 
was no man in Tennessee who stood a better chance in 
an encounter with Jackson than Thomas H. Benton. 
They busily and successfully fomented discord between 
the former friends. Benton at the time was absent in 
Washington — partly on Jackson's business, by the way ! 
— and he hurried home full of rage and threats. Parton 
got the story of the whole affair from Colonel Coffee, 
who was a participant in the subsequent melee, and I 
here insert it. 

" Back from Washington came Colonel Benton, burst- 
ing with wrath and defiance, yet resolved to preserve 
the peace, and neither to seek nor fly the threatened 
attack. One measure of precaution, however, he did 
adopt. There were then two taverns on the public 
square of Nashville, both situated near the same angle, 
their front doors being not more than a hundred yards 
apart. One was the old Nashville Inn (burnt three 
years ago) at which General Jackson was accustomed 
to put up for more than forty years. There, too, the 
Bentons, Colonel Coffee, and all of the general's pecu- 
liar friends were wont to take lodgings whenever they 
visited the town, and to hold pleasant converse over a 
glass of wine, and to play billiards together — a game 
pursued with fanatical devotion in the early days of 
Nashville. By the side of this old inn was a piece of 
open ground, where cocks were accustomed to display 
their prowess and tear one another to pieces for the 
entertainment of some of the citizens. 

" The other tavern, the City Hotel, flourishes to this 
day. It is one of those curious, overgrown caravansaries 
of the olden time, nowhere to be seen now except in the 
ancient streets of London and the old towns of the 
Southern States — a huge tavern, with vast piazzas, and 

233 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

interior galleries running around three sides of a quad- 
rangle, story above story, and quaint little rooms with 
large fireplaces and high mantels opening out upon 
them ; with long, dark passages, and stairs at unex- 
pected places ; and carved wainscoting, and gray-haired 
servants, who have grown old with the old house, and 
can remember General Jackson as long as they can 
remember their own fathers. 

" On reaching Nashville Colonel Benton and his 
brother Jesse did not go to their accustomed inn, but 
stopped at the City Hotel to avoid General Jackson, un- 
less he chose to go out of his way to seek them. This 
was on the third of September. In the evening of the 
same day it came to pass that General Jackson and 
Colonel Coffee rode into the town and put up their 
horses, as usual, at the Nashville Inn. Whether the 
coming of these portentous gentlemen was in conse- 
quence of the general's having received a few hours 
before an intimation of the arrival of Colonel Benton is 
one of those questions which must be left to that already 
overburdened individual — the future historian. Per- 
haps it was true, as Colonel Coffee grinningly remarked, 
that they had come to get their letters from the post- 
office. They were there — that is the main point — and 
concluded to stop all night. Captain Carroll called in 
the course of the evening, and told the general that an 
affair of a most delicate and tender nature compelled 
him to leave Nashville at dawn of day. 

Go, by all means,' said the general. ' I want no 
man to fight my battles.' 

" The next morning, about nine, Colonel Coffee pro- 
posed to General Jackson that they should stroll over 
to the post-office. They started. The general carried 
with him, as he generally did, his riding-whip. He 
also wore a small sword, as all gentlemen once did, 
and as official persons were accustomed to do in Ten- 
nessee as late as the War of 1812. The post-office was 
then situated in the public square on the corner of a 
little alley, just beyond the City Hotel. There were, 
therefore, two ways of getting to it from the Nashville 

234 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

Inn. One way was to go straight to it, across the angle 
of the square; the other, to keep the sidewalk and go 
around. 




" Our two friends took the short cut, walking leisurely 
along. When they were about midway between their 
inn and the post-office Colonel Coffee, glancing towards 
the City Hotel, observed Colonel Benton standing in the 
doorway thereof, drawn up to his full height, and look- 
ing daggers at them. 

" ' Do you see the fellow ?' said Coffee to Jackson in 
a low tone. 

" * Oh, yes,' replied Jackson without turning his head, 
' I have my eye on him.' 

"They continued their walk to the post-office, got 

235 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

their letters, and set out on their return. This time, 
however, they did not take the short way across the 
square, but kept down the sidewalk, which led past the 
front door at which Colonel Benton was posted. As 
they drew near they observed that Jesse Benton was 
standing before the hotel near his brother. On coming 
up to where Colonel Benton stood General Jackson sud- 
denly turned towards him, with his whip in his right 
hand, and stepping up to him, said : 

Now, you d — n rascal, I am going to punish you. 
Defend yourself.' 

" Benton put his hand into his breast pocket and 
Seemed to be fumbling for his pistol. As quick as light- 
ning, Jackson drew a pistol from the pocket behind him 
and presented it full at his antagonist, who recoiled a 
pace or two. Jackson advanced upon him. Benton 
continued to step slowly backward, Jackson close upon 
him, with a pistol at his heart, until they had reached 
the back door of the hotel and were in the act of turning 
down the back piazza. At that moment, just as Jack- 
son was beginning to turn, Jesse Benton entered the 
passage, raised his pistol, and fired at Jackson. The 
pistol was loaded with two balls and a large slug. The 
slug took effect in Jackson's left shoulder, shattering it 
horribly. One of the balls struck the thick part of his 
left arm and buried itself near the bone. The other 
ball splintered the board partition at his side. The shock 
of the wounds was such that Jackson fell across the 
entry and remained prostrate, bleeding profusely. 

" Coffee had remained just outside meanwhile. Hear- 
ing the report of the pistol, he sprang into the entry, 
and, seeing his chief prostrate at the feet of Colonel 
Benton, concluded that it was his ball that had laid 
him low. He rushed upon Benton, drew his pistol, 
fired, and missed. Then he 'clubbed' his pistol, and 
was about to strike when Colonel Benton, in stepping 
backward, came to some stairs of which he was not 
aware and fell headlong to the bottom. Coffee, think- 
ing him hors du combat, hastened to the assistance of 
his wounded general. 

236 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

" The report of Jesse Benton's pistol brought another 
actor on the bloody scene— Stokely Hays, a nephew of 
Mrs. Jackson and a devoted friend to the general. He 
was standing near the Nashville Inn when he heard the 
pistol. He knew well what was going forward, and 
ran with all his speed to the spot. He, too, saw the 
general lying on the floor weltering in his blood. But, 
unlike Coffee, he perceived who it was that had fired 
the deadly charge. Hays was a man of giant's size and 
a giant's strength. He snatched from his sword-cane 
its long and glittering blade, and made a lunge at Jesse 
with such frantic force that it would have pinned him 
to the wall had it taken effect. Luckily the point struck 
a button and the slender weapon was broken to pieces. 
He then drew a dirk, threw himself in a paroxysm of 
fury upon Jesse, and got him down upon the floor. 
Holding him down with one hand, he raised the dirk 
to plunge it into his breast. The prostrate man seized 
the coat-cuff of the descending arm and diverted the 
blow, so that the weapon only pierced the fleshy part 
of his left arm. Hays strove madly to disengage his 
arm, and in doing so gave poor Jesse several flesh 
wounds. At length, with a mighty wrench, he tore his 
cuff from Jesse Benton's convulsive grasp, lifted the 
dirk high in the air, and was about to bury it in the 
heart of his antagonist when a bystander caught the up- 
lifted hand and prevented the further shedding of blood. 
Other bystanders then interfered ; the maddened Hays, 
the wrathful Coffee, the irate Benton, were held back 
from continuing the combat, and quiet was restored. 

" Faint from loss of blood, Jackson was conveyed to 
a room in the Nashville Inn, his wound still bleeding 
fearfully. Before the bleeding could be stopped two 
mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used to say, were soaked 
through, and the general was reduced almost to the last 
gasp. All the doctors in Nashville were soon in attend- 
ance, all but one of whom, and he a young man, recom- 
mended the amputation of the shattered arm. ' I'll keep 
my arm,' said the wounded man, and he kept it. No 
attempt was made to extract the ball, and it remained 

237 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

in the arm for twenty years. The ghastly wounds in 
the shoulder were dressed, in the simple manner of the 
Indians and pioneers, with poultices of slippery elm, and 
other products of the woods. The patient was utterly 
prostrated with the loss of blood. It was two or three 
weeks before he could leave his bed. 

" After the retirement of the general's friends the 
Bentons remained for an hour or more on the scene of 
the affray, denouncing Jackson as an assassin, and a 
defeated assassin. They defied him to come forth and 
renew the strife. Colonel Benton made a parade of 
breaking Jackson's small-sword, which had been 
dropped in the struggle and left on the floor of the 
hotel. He broke it in the public square, and accom- 
panied the act with words defiant and contemptuous, 
uttered in the loudest tones of his thundering voice. 
The general's friends, all anxiously engaged around the 
couch of their bleeding chief, disregarded these demon- 
strations at the time, and the brothers retired, victorious 
and exultant. 

" On the days following, however, Colonel Benton 
did not find the general's partisans so acquiescent. ' I 
am literally in hell here,' he wrote shortly after the fight ; 
' the meanest wretches under heaven to contend with — 
liars, affidavit-makers, and shameless cowards. All the 
puppies of Jackson are at work on me ; but they will 
be astonished at what will happen, for it is not them, 
but their master, whom I will hold accountable. The 
scalping-knife of Tecumpsy is mercy compared with 
the affidavits of these villains. I am in the middle of 
hell, and see no alternative but to kill or be killed ; for 
I will not crouch to Jackson ; and the fact that I and 
my brother defeated him and his tribe, and broke his 
small-sword in the public square, will forever rankle in 
his bosom and make him thirst after vengeance. My 
life is in danger ; nothing but a decisive duel can save 
me, or even give me a chance for my own existence ; 
for it is a settled plan to turn out puppy after puppy 
to bully me, and when I have got into a scrape to have 
me killed somehow in the scuffle and afterwards the 

238 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

affidavit-makers will prove it was honorably done. I 
shall never be forgiven having my opinion in favor of 
Wilkinson's authority last winter; and this is the root 
of the hell that is now turned loose against me.' 

" Shortly after the affray Colonel Benton went to his 
home in Franklin, Tennessee, beyond reach of ' Jack- 
son's puppies.' He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in 
the regular army, left Tennessee, resigned his commis- 
sion at the close of the war, emigrated to Missouri, and 
never again met General Jackson till 1823, when both 
were members of the Senate of the United States. Jesse 
Benton, I may add, never forgave General Jackson, nor 
could he ever forgive his brother for forgiving the gen- 
eral. Publications against Jackson by the angry Jesse, 
dated as late as 1828, may be seen in old collections of 
political trash. 

" Perhaps in fairness I should append to this narra- 
tive Colonel Benton's own statement of the affray as 
published in the Franklin newspaper a day or two after 
the colonel returned home. The version of the affair 
given in this chapter is General Coffee's. I received it 
from an old friend of all the parties, who heard General 
Coffee tell the story with great fulness and care, as 
though he were giving evidence before a court. Coffee, 
of course, would naturally place the conduct of General 
Jackson in the most favorable light. Benton, hot from 
the fray when he wrote his statement, could not be ex- 
pected to know the whole or the exact truth. He seems, 
for example, to have left Nashville with the impression 
that Jackson was not hurt at all, but had feigned a 
wound in order to escape one. And, indeed, it may be 
remarked here, as well as anywhere, that neither the eyes 
nor the memory of one of those fiery spirits can be 
trusted. Long ago, in the early days of these inquiries, 
I ceased to believe anything that they may have uttered, 
when their pride or their passions were interested, unless 
their story was supported by other evidence or by strong 
probability. It is the nature of such men to forget what 
they wish had never occurred, to remember vividly the 
occurrences which flatter their ruling passion, and un- 

239 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

consciously to magnify their own part in the events of 
the past. TelHng the truth is supposed to be one of the 
easy virtues. What an error ! It is an accomplishment 
that has to be toiled for as heroes toil for victory, as 
artists toil for excellence, as good men toil for the good 
of human kind. When Shakespeare said that to be an 
honest man is to be one man picked out of ten thousand, 
he uttered an arithmetical as well as a moral truth. 

" But here is Colonel Benton's statement, which is, 
perhaps, as true as Coffee's, and is certainly as true as 
Colonel Benton could make it at the time of writing, 
six days after the fight : 

"'Franklin, Tennessee, September lo, 1813. 

" ' A difference which had for some months been brewing be- 
tween General Jackson and myself produced on Saturday, the 
fourth inst., in the town of Nashville, the most outrageous affray 
ever witnessed in a civilized country. In communicating the 
affair to my friend and fellow-citizens I limit myself to the state- 
ment of a few leading facts the truth of which I am ready to 
establish by judicial proofs. 

" ' I. That myself and my brother, Jesse Benton, arriving in 
Nashville on the morning of the affray, and knowing of General 
Jackson's threats, went and took lodgings in a different house 
from the one in which he staid on purpose to avoid him. 

" ' 2. That the general and some of his friends came to the 
house where we had put up, and commenced the attack by 
levelling a pistol at me, when I had no weapon drawn, and 
advancing upon me at a quick pace, without giving me time to 
draw one. 

" ' 3. That seeing this, my brother fired upon General Jackson 
when he had got within eight or ten feet of me. 

" ' 4. That four other pistols were fired in quick succession, 
one by General Jackson at me, two by me at the General, and 
one by Colonel Coffee at me. In the course of this firing Gen- 
eral Jackson was brought to the ground, but received no hurt. 

" ' 5. That daggers were then drawn. Colonel Coffee and 
Mr. Alexander Donaldson made at me, and gave me five slight 
wounds. Captain Hammond and Mr. Stokely Hays engaged 
my brother, who, still suffering from a severe wound he had 
lately received in a duel, was not able to resist two men. They 
got him down, and while Captain Hammond beat him on the 

240 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

head to make him lie still, Mr. Hays attempted to stab him, 
and wounded him in both arms as he lay on his back, parrying 
the thrusts with his naked hands. From this situation a gen- 
erous-hearted citizen of Nashville, Mr. Summer, relieved him. 
Before he came to the ground my brother clapped a pistol to 
the breast of Mr. Hays to blow him through, but it missed fire. 

" ' 6. My own and my brother's pistols carried two balls each, 
for it was our intention, if driven to arms, to have no child's 
play. The pistols fired at me were so near that the blaze of the 
muzzle of one of them burnt the sleeve of my coat, and the 
other aimed at my head at a little more than arm's length 
from it. 

" ' 7. Captain Carroll was to have taken part in the aflfray, but 
was absent by the permission of General Jackson, as he had 
proved by the general's certificate, a certificate which reflects 
I know not whether less honor upon the general or upon the 
captain. 

" ' 8. That this attack was made upon me in the house where 
the judge of the district, Mr. Searcy, had his lodgings! Nor 
has the civil authority yet taken cognizance of this horrible 
outrage. 

" ' These facts are sufficient to fix the public opinion. For 
my own part, I think it scandalous that such things should take 
place at any time; but particularly so at the present moment, 
when the public service requires the aid of all its citizens. As 
for the name of courage, God forbid that I should ever attempt 
to gain it by becoming a bully. Those who know me, know full 
well that I would give a thousand times more for the reputation 
of Croghan in defending his post, than I would for the repu- 
tation of all the duellists and gladiators that ever appeared 
upon the face of the earth. 

" ' Thomas Hart Benton.' " 

Coffee is certainly mistaken in one particular. It 
was Thomas H. Benton's bullet that wounded Jackson, 
not that of his brother Jesse, and both Benton and Jack- 
son were fully persuaded of the fact. 

The consequences of the duel were serious enough, 
but they might have been much more so. A man of 
less indomitable will and courage than Jackson would 
never have been able to make the Creek campaigns while 
suffering from such a wound, and without the Creek 
16 241 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

campaigns there would have been no New Orleans, and 
without New Orleans there would have been no eight 
years as President of the United States ! Never through 
the period of active service could Jackson bear the 
weight of the heavy bullion epaulet of his rank on his 
wounded shoulder. We have seen that Jackson suffered 
from the wounds received from Dickinson and Benton 
practically all his life. 

But Jackson and Benton were not destined to continue 
enemies. As Roosevelt says, " Benton was as forgiv- 
ing as he was hot-tempered, and Jackson's ruder na- 
ture was at any rate free from any small meanness or 
malice." When Jackson came back to the United States 
Senate in 1822 he and Benton were soon reconciled. 
Benton's own words well describe the termination of the 
quarrel : " Well," wrote the Missourian in a contem- 
porary letter, " how many changes in this life ! General 
Jackson is now sitting in the chair next to me. There 
was a vacant one next to me, and he took it for the ses- 
sion. Several senators saw our situation and offered 
mediation. I declined it upon the ground that what had 
happened could neither be explained, recanted, nor de- 
nied. After this we were put on the same committee. 
Facing me one day, as we sat in our seats, he said to me, 
' Colonel, we are on the same committee ; I will give you 
notice when it is necessary to attend.' (He was chair- 
man and had the right to summon us.) I answered, 
* General, make the time suit yourself ; it will be con- 
venient for me to attend at any time.' In committee we 
did business together just as other persons. After that 
he asked me how my wife was, and I asked him how his 
was. Then he called and left his card at my lodgings — 
Andrew Jackson for Colonel Benton and lady; forth- 
with I called at his and left mine — Colonel Benton for 
General Jackson. Since then we have dined together at 
several places, and yesterday at the President's. I made 

242 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

him the first bow, he held forth his hand, and we shook 
hands. I then introduced him to my wife, and thus civil 
relations are perfectly established between us. Jackson 
has gained since he has been here by his mild and con- 
ciliatory manner." 

They would never have been reconciled had the cause 
of their difficulty been related to Mrs. Jackson. Years 
afterwards Benton said, in answer to a question from 
Dr. John S. Moore, of St. Louis : " Yes, I had a fight 
with Jackson. A fellow was hardly in the fashion then 
who hadn't. But mine was different from his other 
fights. It was not about Aunt Rachel. It could not 
have been, of course, because I never would have pro- 
voked him on that subject. As it was, / ascertained that 
his skill zvith the pistol zvas overrated, did not hurt him 
seriously, and on the whole made him like me better 
after the fight than he ever did before. But if it had 
been about Aunt Rachel he never would have forgiven 
me." 

Jackson and Clay were bitter enemies. Colonel Butler 
once tried to effect a reconciliation between them, urging 
that as Jackson had forgiven Benton's bullet he might 
also pardon Clay's tongue. Says Buell : " General Jack- 
son looked his beloved old aide-de-camp of New Orleans 
straight in the eye for a full minute. Then he said, 
slowly and gently : ' William, my dear old friend, you 
don't tmderstand the difference. There wasn't any 
poison on Benton's bullet ! It was honest lead !' " 

I do not know what Jackson would have done without 
Benton, or how he would have accomplished the tre- 
mendous tasks to which he set himself without his 
brilliant assistance. In all his fights in the Senate of 
the United States Benton was his most devoted advocate, 
sometimes his only defender. The great enemy of 
privilege, the great apostle of hard money, whose public 
name was " Old Bullion," who was no unworthy antago- 

243 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

nist to Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, was one of the 
principal factors in Jackson's successful Presidential 
careers. When the old hero lay a-dying at the Her- 
mitage he pulled the head of Lewis down to him and 
almost with his last breath whispered, " Tell Colonel 
Benton that I am grateful in my dying moment." 

Once in the Senate Henry Clay delivered himself 
thus with regard to Benton: 

" There are some peculiar reasons why I should not 
go to that senator for my views of decorum in regard to 
my bearing towards the chief magistrate, and why he is 
not a fit instructor. I never had any personal encounter 
with the President of the United States, I never com- 
plained of any outrages on my person committed by 
him. I never published any bulletins respecting his 
private brawls. The gentleman will understand my allu- 
sions. I never complained that while a brother of mine 
was down on the ground, senseless or dead, he received 
another blow. I have never made any declarations like 
these relative to the individual who is President. There 
is also a singular prophecy as to the consequences of the 
election of this individual which far surpasses in evil 
foreboding whatever I may have ever said in regard to 
his election. I never made any prediction so sinister, 
nor made any declaration so harsh, as that "which is con- 
tained in the prediction to which I allude, I never de- 
clared my apprehension and belief that if he were elected 
we should be obliged to legislate with pistols and dirks 
by our side." 

And to him Benton made the following dignified 
reply : 

" It is true, sir, that I had an affray with General 
Jackson, and that I did complain of his conduct. We 
fought, sir, and we fought, I hope, like men. When the 
explosion was over there remained no ill-will on either 
side. No vituperation or system of petty persecution 

244 





HENRY CLAV IN MIDDLE LIFE 
From the painting by Dubourjal 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

was kept up between us. Yes, sir, it is true, that I had 
the personal difficulty which the senator from Kentucky 
has had the delicacy to bring before the Senate. But 
let me tell the senator from Kentucky there is no ' ad- 
journed question of veracity' between me and General 
Jackson. All difficulty between us ended with the con- 
flict, and a few months after it I believe that either party 
would cheerfully have relieved the other from any peril, 
and now we shake hands and are friendly when we 
meet." 

Jackson had told Carroll that he was done with duel- 
ling, but he had not then come in contact with Henry 
Clay. If ever Jackson hated a man, he hated Henry 
Clay. 

" During his Presidency, when a particularly bitter 
phrase of Clay's in the Senate was reported to him, he 
exclaimed, ' Oh, that I had ofif these robes of office !' He 
said no more. 'T am perfectly sure,' concluded Colonel 
Butler, ' that Jackson never for a moment was sorry 
that he killed Charles Dickinson. And I am equally cer- 
tain that he died sorry because he never got a chance to 
kill Henry Clay.' " 

Clay advocated the resolution of censure for Jack- 
son's removal of the government deposits from the 
United States Bank in a great speech, and, says Parton : 
" It was after reading this speech that General Jackson 
exclaimed : ' Oh, if I live to get these robes of office 
oE me, I will bring the rascal to a dear account.' " 

When he was urging Jackson unavailingly to forgive 
Clay General Butler said that he never saw exactly such 
an expression on a human face as Jackson exhibited 
when he made that famous remark about Benton's 
" honest lead." " It demonstrated to him that the only 
manner in which the general wished to meet Mr. Clay 
face to face was at ten paces, and- that he never to his 
dying day would consent to meet him otherwise. Gen- 

245 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

eral Butler further observed that Clay was peculiarly 
constituted in that respect. He was quick enough to 
take personal offence at the words of others, but he could 
not see why his own, uttered in what he considered 
purely and legitimately political debate, should be mor- 
tally resented, as Jackson resented them." 

It has been seen that Jackson was not only an abso- 
lutely fearless man, but he was a man of iron nerve as 
well. He once said in answer to an inquiry : " . . . that 
he never had a tremor in his hands in his life ; that his 
nerves were like steel bars." 

The only way to stop him was to kill him. In one of 
the Indian affairs in which he engaged he nearly lost 
his life in an adventurous feat. He made this charac- 
teristic and contemptuous remark to one of the by- 
standers who congratulated him upon his narrow escape 
and expressed the hope that his life might not be 
jeoparded again: "A miss is as good as a mile. You 
see how near a man can graze danger." 

On this subject reference may be made to two other 
episodes in Jackson's career. Parton describes the 
cowardly assault upon the President on May 6, 1833, 
committed by a naval officer who had been cashiered 
for cause : 

" At Alexandria, where the steamer touched, there 
came on board a Mr. Randolph, late a lieutenant in the 
navy, who had been recently dismissed the service. 
Randolph made his way to the cabin, where he found 
the President sitting behind a table reading a news- 
paper. He approached the table, as if to salute the 
President. 

" ' Excuse my rising, sir,' said the general, who was 
not acquainted with Randolph. ' I have a pain in my 
side which makes it distressing for me to rise.' 

" Randolph made no reply to this courteous apology, 
but appeared to be taking off his glove. 

246 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

" * Never mind your glove, sir,' said the general, hold- 
ing out his hand. 

" At this moment Randolph thrust his hand violently 
into the President's face, intending, as it appeared, to 
pull his nose. The captain of the boat, who was stand- 
ing by, instantly seized Randolph and drew him back. 
A violent scuffle ensued, during which the table was 
broken. The friends of Randolph clutched him, and 
hurried him ashore before many of the passengers knew 
what had occurred, and thus he effected his escape. 
The passengers soon crowded into the cabin to learn if 
the general was hurt. 

" ' Had I known,' said he, ' that Randolph stood before 
me, I should have been prepared for him, and I could 
have defended myself. No villain,' said he, ' has ever 
escaped me before, and he would not had it not been 
for my confined situation.' 

" Some blood was seen on his face, and he was asked 
whether he had been much injured? 

" ' No,' said he, ' I am not much hurt ; but in endeav- 
oring to rise I have wounded my side, which now pains 
me more than it did.' 

" One of the citizens of Alexandria, who had heard of 
the outrage, addressed the general and said, ' Sir, if 
you will pardon me, in case I am tried and convicted, I 
will kill Randolph for this insult to you in fifteen 
minutes !' 

" ' No, sir,' said the President, ' I cannot do that. I 
want no man to stand between me and my assailants, 
and none to take revenge on my account. Had I been 
prepared for this cowardly villain's approach, I can 
assure you all that he would never have the temerity 
to undertake such a thing again.' " 

I cannot discover that anything was ever done to this 
ex-officer to punish him for his disgraceful and offen- 
sive conduct. 

247 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

On the thirtieth of January, 1835, ^ futile attempt 
was made to assassinate Jackson. Parton thus relates 
the incident; 

" On that day the President, the Cabinet, both Houses 
of Congress, and a concourse of citizens assembled in 
the hall of the House of Representatives to take part in 
the funeral ceremonies in honor of a deceased member of 
the House from South Carolina. After the usual solem- 
nities a procession was formed to escort the body to the 
grave. The President, near the head of the procession, 
accompanied by Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Dickinson, had 
crossed the great rotunda of the Capifol, and was about 
to step out upon the portico, when a man emerged from 
the crowd and, placing himself before the President at 
a distance of eight feet from him, levelled a pistol at 
his breast and pulled the trigger. The cap exploded 
with a loud report without discharging the pistol. The 
man dropped the pistol upon the pavement and raised 
a second, which he had held in his left hand under his 
cloak. That also missed fire. The President, the instant 
he comprehended the purpose of the man, rushed furi- 
ously at him with uplifted cane. Before he reached him 
Lieutenant Gedney, of the navy, had knocked the assas- 
sin down, and he was immediately secured and taken 
to jail. The President, boiling with rage, was hurried 
into a carriage by his friends and conveyed to the White 
House. For some days his belief remained unshaken 
that the man had been set on to attempt his destruction 
by a clique of his political enemies. 

" The prisoner was proved to be a maniac. His name 
was Lawrence. He was an English house painter, who 
had been long out of employment. Hearing on all sides 
that the country had been ruined by the measures of 
General Jackson, the project of assassinating him had 
fastened itself in his crazy brain." 

Miss Harriet Martineau, then travelling in the United 

248 



DUELS AND QUARRELS 

States, reports an interesting interview she had with 
the general upon this subject in these terms: " When I 
did go to the White House, I took the briefest possible 
notice to the President of the ' insane attempt' of Law- 
rence, but the word roused his ire. He protested, in 
the presence of many strangers, that there was no in- 
sanity in the case. I was silent, of course. He pro- 
tested that there was a plot, and that the man was a 
tool, and at length quoted the Attorney-General as his 
authority. It was painful to hear a chief ruler publicly 
trying to persuade a foreigner that any of hi^ constitu- 
ents hated him to the death, and I took the liberty of 
changing the subject as soon as I could. The next 
morning I was at the Attorney-General's and I asked 
him how he could let himself be quoted as saying that 
Lawrence was not mad. He excused himself by saying 
that he meant general insanity. He believed Lawrence 
insane in one direction ; that it was a sort of Ravaillac 
case. I besought him to impress the President with this 
view of the case as soon as might be." 

This attempt at assassination naturally evoked the 
greatest demonstration of loyalty and affection on the 
part of the people of the United States f^r their hero 
and their idol. 



249 



XIII 

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

No man in Jackson's time could hold office without 
being a speechmaker. Some of the most persistent and 
successful office-holders of the present have never made 
a speech, — and it may be that for this mainly have they 
continued to hold office ! — but in Jackson's day it was 
different. The stump speech was the recognized means 
whereby men acquired power and office among their 
friends. Communities were smaller, it was easy for a 
man who sought the suffrages of his fellow-citizens to 
know all his constituents personally, and it was neces- 
sary for the office-seeker to be ready to discuss every- 
thing with everybody at any time. 

The stump speech is not the highest form of oratory, 
to be sure, and the people to whom it is addressed are 
not usually of such a character as to call forth anything 
extraordinary. But upon the facility developed by the 
practice there was built a capacity for public speaking 
in the higher walks of life, and for the enjoyment 
thereof in all stations, which has largely passed away. 
Congress was the great debating society of the nation. 
Oratory was at a premium. Now it is at a discount, 
its place being taken by the fine art of manipulation; 
persuasion by word of mouth has given place to subtle 
management and other things which go under darker 
names ; but until the period of the Civil War oratory 
was supreme. That there were giants in those days is 
no idle statement. Great were the speakers and states- 
men of the Jacksonian period — and, by the way, that 
term, which is now universally employed, serves better 

250 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

perhaps than any other evidence to indicate the domi- 
nance of Jackson's personaHty in political affairs while 
he lived, for among many great men who have honored 
the Presidential chair he is the only one who has given 
his name to an epoch, although I should not be surprised 
if future historians write of the " Roosevelt period." 

One reason why the name of Jackson was given to a 
period by practically unanimous agreement was because 
he effected in one sense a partial revolution in that he 
abolished the senatorial caucus and gave a new meaning 
to the words " popular government," a meaning which 
had never before been apparent. The aristocracy of the 
country was, during his administration and by virtue of 
his influence, displaced from that position of authority 
which it had held since Washington's day. The people, 
the whole people, in which, of course, the plain, the 
humble, the inconsidered, predominated, for the first 
time administered the government through their idol, 
their apotheosis, if I may use the word. The truth is 
that the said idol administered it himself, but both he 
and the people were firmly convinced that it was admin- 
istered by and for the people as never before. Such an 
extraordinary change, the introduction of what may be 
called a new phase into the practice of government, 
naturally created a new epoch. 

The leading figures of this period, and I give them in 
the order of their ability as I see it, were Daniel Web- 
ster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, John Quincy 
Adams, John C. Calhoun, and Martin Van Buren. And 
there were many others of scarcely less prominence, as 
Paul Hamilton Hayne, William H. Crawford, John Ran- 
dolph, and Nicholas Biddle, besides a host of lesser 
lights, including several future Presidents of the United 
States, in Congress and out of it. Everyone of these 
men was an orator ; one of them, at least, ranks among 
the greatest speakers that the world has ever listened 

251 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

to. None of them had ever been a soldier. The name 
of no one is identified with any great military exploit, 
yet the fame of each is exceedingly high. They will be 
remembered so long as the government endures for their 
qualities, their acts, and their sayings. 

Practically all of these men were Jackson's superiors 
in education, in culture, and in abilities of various kinds, 
but as a personality, a compound of qualities directed by 
a single mind, subservient to a single will, devoted to 
a single idea — love of country — ^Jackson was above them 
all. It is no idle compliment, no makeshift phrase, to call 
that period in which they lived and labored, struggled 
and fought, the Jacksonian Epoch. He dominated it. 

Everyone of them was a better speaker than Jackson, 
but his abilities as a talker are neither to be disdained 
nor despised. He had had abundant exercise in address- 
ing his fellow-citizens in his early practice before the 
Tennessee courts. More, perhaps, depended upon an 
ability to speak convincingly and persuasively with 
sound, good common-sense than upon knowledge of law 
in the practice of those days. Jackson was not only a 
fearless, resolute prosecutor, but he was a successful at- 
torney in his own private practice. He had more cases 
committed to his charge than any other member of the 
bar, a sure indication of successful pleading. As a judge 
he was obliged to speak often, and did it always to the 
point. One of the chief duties of a militia officer was to 
talk to the soldiers, and although his proclamations to 
the army are somewhat bombastic, — sometimes quite in 
the Napoleonic vein ! — there is a ring back of them that 
shows the manner of man he was and which profoundly 
appealed to his constituents. In campaigning for vari- 
ous political offices he held he naturally talked much. 
Blair, who heard him often, has this to say of his 
forensic methods : 

" He was not then or ever afterwards what is com- 

252 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

monly termed an orator. But he was a fluent, forceful, 
and convincing speaker. When he addressed a body of 
men, whether jury, convention, or poHtical mass-meet- 
ing, he talked to them. He did not orate. He had none 
of the arts of oratory, so called. His voice, though 
strong and penetrating, was untrained. He had no idea 
of modulation, but let his inflections follow feelings, 
naturally, as he went along. About the only gestures he 
knew were the raising of both hands to indicate rever- 
ence or veneration, the spreading of both arms wide out 
to indicate deprecation, and the fierce pointing of his 
long, gaunt forefinger straight forward, like a pistol, to 
indicate decision, dogmatism, or defiance. And," pur- 
sued the venerable Mr. Blair, " candor compels me to say 
that he used that forefinger more than any other limb 
or member in his gesticulation. 

" His vocabulary was copious, and he never stood at 
loss for a word to express his sense. When perfectly 
calm or not roused by anything that appealed to his 
feelings rather than to his judgment, he spoke slowly, 
carefully, and in well-selected phrase. But when ex- 
cited or angry, he would pour forth a torrent of rugged 
sentences more remarkable for their intent to beat down 
opposition than for their strict attention to the rules of 
rhetoric — or even syntax. 

" But in all situations and mental conditions his dic- 
tion was clear and his purpose unmistakable. No one 
ever listened to a speech or a talk from Andrew Jackson 
who, when he was done, had the least doubt as to what 
he was driving at." 

Schouler says : " In conversation he interested, 
whether he convinced or not, being clear, earnest, and 
straight to the point both in thought and expression; 
and while no question admitted of two sides to his mind, 
his own was fearlessly grasped. As his speech was 
sagacious and incisive in spite of slips in grammar or 

253 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

mispronunciation, so he could write with powerful effect, 
though no scholar in the true sense, and in personal con- 
troversy he was one to be feared. His state papers en- 
gaged able minds in and out of his Cabinet, yet the direc- 
tion of thought, the statement of policy, the temper of the 
document, were his own. Others might elaborate the 
argument for him or polish and arrange the composition, 
but, after all, his was the central thought, and he would 
flourish over the paper with a rapid pen, and a huge one, 
until sheet after sheet lay before him glistening with ink 
and glowing with expression, as though it were written 
in his heart's blood. That there were misspelt words to 
be corrected, or awkward sentences to be trussed up 
afterwards by his secretary, is not to be denied. In 
short, Andrew Jackson fed little upon books and much 
upon experience with unconventional life and human 
nature ; but he had what is essential to eminence in 
either case, a vigorous intellect and a strong will." 

In this connection the. following story, for which Par- 
ton vouches, is very characteristic and amusing: 

" General Jackson, as his associates remember, had 
certain peculiarities of pronunciation to which he always 
adhered. For example, he would pronounce the word 
development as though it were written devil-o/^^-ment, 
with a strong accent upon the ope. One day during his 
Presidency he so pronounced it when in conversation 
with a foreign minister, who, though not English, had 
been educated in England and plumed himself upon his 
knowledge and nice pronunciation of the English lan- 
guage. ' Devil-o/'^-ment,' said the general with em- 
phasis. The ambassador lifted his eyebrows slightly, 
and in the course of a sentence or two took occasion to 
pronounce the word correctly. The President, seeming 
not to remark his excellency's benevolent intention, 
again said ' devil-o/'^-ment ;' whereupon the fastidious 
minister ventured once more to give the word its proper 

254 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

accent. No notice was taken of the impolite correc- 
tion. 

" ' I repeat it, Mr. ,' continued the President ; 

* this measure is essential to the devil-o/>^-ment of our 
resources.' 

" ' Really, sir,' replied the ambassador, ' I consider the 
de-t/^/-opment of your country ' with a marked ac- 
cent upon the vel. 

" Upon this the general exclaimed, ' Excuse me, Mr. 

. You may call it de-z'^Z-opment if you please ; but 

/ say devil-o/'^-ment and tvill say devil-o/'(?-ment as long 
as I revere the memory of good old Doctor Waddell !' " 
Doctor Waddell, upon whom this interesting pronuncia- 
tion is fathered, was a famous preacher to whom Jack- 
son often listened when a young man. 

Jackson was subpoenaed to Richmond as a witness in 
the trial of Aaron Burr in June, 1807. While in Rich- 
mond news was received of the outrageous attack of the 
British 50-gun ship " Leopard" .on the American frigate 
" Chesapeake," 36. The whole nation was terribly 
humiliated by this affair, and Jackson, as a bitter hater 
of the British, felt it more keenly than anyone. He 
expected a declaration of war, and after waiting for 
some time, finding that nothing would be done by Jef- 
ferson, whom he despised as a dilettante, a doctrinaire, 
and a temporizer, he determined upon a rather unusual 
course. 

He published an announcement in a Richmond paper 
to the effect that " General Andrew Jackson, of Ten- 
nessee, would address the people from the steps of the 
State-House after adjournment of the court." Jackson 
had not done anything particularly striking or brilliant 
which would have caused him to be regarded with any 
great amount of interest by the people, or that would 
render his pronouncements important enough for them 
to be looked for with eager curiosity. The great 

255 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

achievements of his career were still before him, yet the 
famous duel with Dickinson had brought him into some 
notoriety, to which his connection with Burr had added, 
and his peculiar personality as exhibited during his 
three weeks' stay in Richmond had rendered him rather 
a notable figure. 

Therefore when the appointed time arrived a large 
part of the population of the town was present to hear 
what he had to say. It is safe to say that none of them 
left after he began his extraordinary harangue. He 
spoke extemporaneously for over an hour, his subject 
being the supineness of Mr. Jefiferson and the outrage 
upon our national flag, but he soon got off on other 
issues, the principal one being Jefiferson himself. 

Unfortunately, no report of this speech was made, 
but some notes were taken by a journalist present, one 
Thomas Ritchie. When these were afterwards pub- 
lished when Jackson was running for the Presidency he 
said that they were fair as far as they went, although 
they didn't go far enough. Some idea of the character 
of this speech can be gathered from these notes : 

" Mr. Jefiferson has plenty of courage to seize peace- 
^ able Americans by military force and persecute them 
■ for political purposes. But he is too cowardly to resent 
foreign outrage upon the Republic. Here an English 
man-of-war fires upon an American ship of inferior 
force, so near his capital that he can almost hear the 
guns, and what does he do? Nothing more than that 
his friends say he will recommend to Congress a bill 
laying an embargo and shutting our commerce ofif from 
the seas. If a man kicks you downstairs you get re- 
venge by standing out in the middle of the street and 
making faces at him ! . . . 

" This persecution was hatched in Kentucky. The 
chicken died and they are trying to bring it to life again. 
Some think the object of the person that hatched it in 

256 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

Kentucky was malice. I prefer to think it was overzeal 
of a weak tool in the hands of a cowardly master. The 
man in Kentucky had his orders from the man in Wash- 
ington, just as the men here have their orders from the 
same source. Mr. Jefferson can torture Aaron Burr 
while England tortures our sailors. This grand State 
[Virginia] is full of good Republicans [Democrats], and 
many of them may not like to hear such sentiments about 
their own great man. Whatever he does or fails to do 
is right in their eyes, no matter how cruel to Americans, 
or how dastardly towards the English. But the East 
is different from the West. Out there the political air 
is pure. Here in the East I sometimes think the Fed- 
eralists have made the political air we breathe stink so 
that weak-stomached Republicans find it necessary to 
turn skunks to save their own nostrils. 

" A year ago or more I gave at a dinner to Aaron 
Burr in Nashville the toast ' Millions for defence ; not 
a cent for tribute.' They change that tune on this side 
of the mountains. Here, it seems to me, ' Millions to 
persecute an American; not a cent to resist England!' 
Shame on such a leader ! Contempt for a public opinion 
rotten enough to follow him !" 

Mr. Ritchie thus comments upon the scene : 

" He spared none. His style of speaking was rude 
but strong. It was not the polished oratory Eastern 
audiences were accustomed to hear, but the sturdy blows 
of some pioneer's axe felling a giant in the forest. ' He 
can talk as well as he can shoot,' said a bystander in 
my hearing, evidently in reference to the duel with 
Dickinson. ' Yes,' said the bystander's companion, ' and 
he talks as if he was ready to shoot now !' 

" He sowed the seeds of duel broadcast. He gave at 
least three men ample grounds for demanding satisfac- 
tion. Two of them were there and heard him. One of 
them, Jo Daviess, was known to be a duellist. The 
17 257 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

other, Mr. Wirt, was thought to be a man of spirit and 
courage. The third man he attacked, General Wilkin- 
son, was not present, though in the city, and he soon 
knew every word Jackson had said about him ; such 
expressions as * double-traitor ;' or ' a man who betrays 
his country first and then perjures himself about it after- 
wards ;' ' a pretended soldier who dishonors his flag 
and an officer who disgraces his commission ;' and ' let 
us pity the sword that dangles from his felon's belt, for 
if is doubtless of honest steel.' Wilkinson was a noted 
duellist. Many thought it certain that he, and perhaps 
Jo Daviess also, would call Jackson to account. But no 
one molested him. Probably none emulated the fate of 
Charles Dickinson. He concluded his speech in these 
words : 

" ' There is an old saying that a workman is known 
by his tools. This is as true as Holy Writ. If you 
want to know what kind of a workman Thomas Jeffer- 
son is, look at James Wilkinson, Jo Daviess, and Wil- 
liam Wirt ! Like master, like man. But at least two of 
these men differ from their master in one thing: Wil- 
kinson, base and treacherous as he is, and Daviess, weak 
and irresponsible as he may be, have both shown cour- 
age in the presence of danger. Jefferson has never had 
that occasion, because he has always been cunning 
enough to keep out of harm's way !' " 

Thirty years afterwards Jackson told Governor Allen, 
of Ohio, that in making this speech he had in view two 
well-defined purposes: one to let the East know what 
the West thought of Jefferson's timid, tortuous, pusil- 
lanimous policy in general, the other to sound the key- 
note of the new movement which might give other States 
a chance for the Presidency besides Virginia and Massa- 
chusetts. 

Jackson disliked and despised Jefferson. " Officially," 
he said, " Jefferson was all that could be wished, but in 

258 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

personal intercourse he always left upon you the im- 
pression of want of candor, sincerity, and fidelity." He 
could not conceal his contempt for the man. " I really 
believe," said Jackson, " that he seriously cherishes the 
foolish hope that he might sometime be elected President 
without opposition, as Washington had been." Now 
these remarks are very interesting. In the first place, 
Jackson was entirely confident that he was competent to 
— and did in fact then and there — express the opinion of 
the entire West concerning Jefferson. In the second 
place, there seems to be a gleam of purpose regarding 
the Presidency, which would be more evident were there 
not abundant testimony to the fact that in later years 
Jackson declared that he neither desired nor hoped for 
that office. 

Since Jackson believed Jefferson to be insincere, vacil- 
lating, and timid, he naturally despised him, for he was 
the very antithesis of these qualities. There never was 
a more sincerely honest, resolutely determined, abso- 
lutely fearless man, than Jackson. 

The speech referred to made some stir, but it seems 
to be considered by most of his biographers simply as a 
dramatic incident in his life. I regard it differently. 
I think the foundation of the present Democratic party 
practically dates from that Richmond address of Andrew 
Jackson. Jefferson and Jackson are the two Democrats 
by which the party of to-day swears. Political parties 
find no difficulty in swearing by antitheses at times ! 
However that may be, Jackson is the undoubted ex- 
ponent of the Democracy of to-day. The difference 
between Jackson and Jefferson is the difference between 
theory and practice largely. As Congressman William 
Randolph Hearst aptly puts it: 

" Had the Hamiltonian scheme prevailed, this Repub- 
lic would have become a monarchy in all but name within 
the lifetime of the men who had signed the Declaration 

259 



H^ 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

of Independence. But the democracy of the country- 
asserted itself, a peaceful political revolution occurred, 
and Jefferson was selected by the people to represent the 
people as President of the United States. He gave 
Democratic battle to the undemocratic confederated 
wealth and prejudice of his time. He redeclared the 
equality of men, preached an eternally true doctrine 
that in our Republic the people, whatever their short- 
comings, are the safest depository of power, the best 
guardian of their own interests. The people reelected 
Jefferson to the Presidency by a majority so overwhelm- 
ing that the Federalists — educated, able, and brilliant in 
leadership as they were — perished as a party. That 
historic landslide made it known forever that the people, 
and not mere property, have the right to rule in this 

I Republic. But it is a right that to be preserved must be 

' constantly reasserted and fought for. 

" By 1828 the elements which in every age appropriate 
privileges had encroached again. It seemed as if the 
able and acquisite few were once more intrenched be- 
yond serious danger of overthrow. Under the Presi- 
dency of John Quincy Adams, paternalism — the aristo- 
cratic theory that good government is a boon bestowed 
by those above upon those below — was in the ascendant, 
but the people rose again, and in a second political revo- 
lution reestablished pure democracy and selected An- 
drew Jackson to administer it." 

Yet the position of the people in Jefferson's time dif- 
fered radically from that they assumed in Jackson's 
period, just because Jefferson shrank from the extreme 
application of his theories and Jackson did not. 

We have seen some of Jackson's addresses and 
speeches to his soldiers during his campaigns. Before 
the beginning of the Creek War he published the fol- 
lowing address : 

" We are about to furnish these savages a lesson of 

260 



SPEECHES ^AND ADDRESSES 

admonition; we are about to teach them that our long 
forbearance has not proceeded from an insensibility to 
wrongs or an inability to redress them. They stand in 
need of such warning. In proportion as we have borne 
their insults and submitted to their outrages, they have 
multiplied in number and increased in atrocity. But the 
measure of their offences is at length filled. The blood 
of our women and children recently spilled at Fort 
Mimms calls for our vengeance ; it must not call in 
vain. Our borders must be no longer disturbed by the 
warwhoop of these savages and the cries of their suf- 
fering victims. The torch that has been lighted up must 
be made to blaze in the heart of their own country. It 
is time they should be made to feel the weight of a 
power which, because it was merciful, they believed to 
be impotent. But how shall a war so long forborne and 
so loudly called for by retributive justice be waged? 
Shall we imitate the examples of our enemies in the 
disorder of our movement and the savageness of our 
disposition? Is it worthy the character of American 
soldiers, who take up arms to redress the wrongs of an 
injured country, to assume no better models than those 
furnished them by barbarians ? No, fellow-soldiers ; 
great as are the grievances that have called us from our 
home, we must not permit disorderly passions to tarnish 
the reputations we shall carry along with us. We must 
and will be victorious; but we must conquer as men 
who owe nothing to chance, and who, in the midst of 
victory, can still be mindful of what is due to humanity. 
" We will commence the campaign by an inviolable 
attention to discipline and subordination. Without a 
strict observance of these, victory must ever be uncer- 
tain and ought hardly be exulted in, even when gained. 
To what but the entire disregard of order and subordina- 
tion are we to ascribe the disasters which have attended 
our arms in the North during the present war? How 

261 



# 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

glorious will it be to remove the blots which have tar- 
nished the fair character bequeathed us by the fathers 
ti»i our Revolution? The bosom of your general is full 
of hope. He knows the ardor which animates you, and 
already exults in the triumph which your strict observ- 
ance of discipline and good order will render certain." 

And just before the final march on Horseshoe Bend he 
issued this brief and ringing address : 

" You have, fellow-citizens, at length penetrated the 
country of your enemies. It is not to be believed that 
they will abandon the soil that embosoms the bones of 
their forefathers without furnishing you an opportunity 
of signalizing your valor. Wise men do not expect ; 
brave men do not desire it. It was not to travel unmo- 
lested through a barren wilderness that you quitted your 
families and homes, and submitted to so many priva- 
tions; it was to avenge the cruelties committed upon 
your defenceless frontiers by the inhuman Creeks, in- 
stigated by their no less inhuman allies ; you shall not 
be disappointed. If the enemy flees before you, we will 
overtake and chastise him ; we will teach him how 
dreadful, when once aroused, is the resentment of free- 
men." 

After the battle of New Orleans at a great service, a 
Te Deum in the Cathedral in that city, he made the 
following response to the address of the Abbe Dubourg. 
Just prior to his entrance he had been presented with a 
laurel crown: 

" Reverend sir," began the general with an imperial 
bow, " I receive with gratitude and pleasure the sym- 
bolical crown which piety has prepared ; I receive it in 
the name of the brave men who have so effectually 
seconded my exertions for the preservation of their 
country — they well deserve the laurels which their coun- 
try will bestow. 

" For myself, to have been instrumental in the de- 

262 



% 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

liverance of such a country is the greatest blessing that 
Heaven could confer. That it has been effected with so 
little loss — that so few tears should cloud the smiles of 
our triumph, and not a cypress leaf be interwoven in the 
wreath which you present — is a source of the most 
humble enjoyment. *'^ 

" I thank you, reverend sir, most sincerely for the 
prayers which you offer up for my happiness. May 
those your patriotism dictates for our beloved country be 
first heard. And may mine for your individual pros- 
perity, as well as that of the congregation committed to 
your care, be favorably received. The prosperity, the 
wealth, the happiness of this city will then be commen- 
surate with the courage and other qualities of its i%- 
habitants." 

Upon his return to Nashville he was there received 
and addressed by the citizens, Mr. Felix Grundy being 
their mouthpiece, and the students of Cumberland Col- 
lege. To Mr. Felix Grundy he said : 

" Sir, I am at a loss to express my feelings. The 
approbation of my fellow-citizens is to me the richest 
reward. Through you, sir, I beg leave to assure them 
that I am this day amply compensated for every toil and 
labor. 

" In a war forced upon us by the multiplied wrongs of 
a nation who envied our increasing prosperity, important 
and difficult duties were assigned me. I have labored to 
discharge them faithfully, having a single eye to the 
honor of my country. 

" The bare consciousness of having performed my 
duty would have been a source of great happiness, but 
the assurance that what I have done meets your appro- 
bation enhances that happiness greatly. 

" I beg you to believe, my friends and neighbors, that 
while I rejoice with you in the return of peace, and 
unite my prayers with yours for its long continuance, 

263 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

it will ever be my highest pride to render you my best 
services when nations, mistaking our peaceful disposi- 
tion for pusillanimity, shall insult and outrage those feel- 
ings and rights which belong to us as an independent 
nation." 

To the students of the college he thus replied: 

" Young Gentlemen : With lively feelings of pride 
and joy I receive your address. To find that even the 
youth of my country, although engaged in literary pur- 
suits and exempt from military duty, are willing, when 
the voice of patriotism calls, to abandon for a time the 
seat of the muses for the privations of a camp, excites 
in my heart the warmest interest. The country which 
Hts the good fortune to be defended by soldiers animated 
by such feelings as those young gentlemen who were 
once members of the same literary institution you now 
are, and whom I had the honor to command, will never 
be in danger from internal or external foes. Their good 
conduct on many trying occasions will never be for- 
gotten by their general. 

" It is a source of particular satisfaction to me that 
you duly appreciate the merits of those worthy and 
highly distinguished generals — Carroll and Coffee. 
Their example is worthy imitation ; and from the noble 
sentiments which you on this occasion express, I enter- 
tain no doubt that if circumstances require, you will 
emulate their deeds of valor. It is to such officers and 
their brave associates in arms that Tennessee, in mili- 
tary achievements, can vie with the most renowned of 
her sister States. 

" That your academic labors may be crowned with the 
fullest success, by fulfilling the high expectations of 
your relatives and friends, is the ardent and sincere wish 
of my heart. 

" Receive, my young friends, my prayers for your 
future health and prosperity." 

264 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

After he reached the Hermitage a number of his 
friends and neighbors assembled informally and con- 
gratulated him, and to them he made this brief address : 

" The warm testimonials of your friendship and re- 
gard I receive, gentlemen, with the liveliest sensibility. 
The assurance of the approbation of my countrymen, 
and particularly of my acquaintances and neighbors, is 
the most grateful offering that can be made me. It is 
a rich compensation for many sacrifices and many labors. 
I rejoice with you, gentlemen, on the able manner in 
which the sons of America, during a most eventful and 
perilous conflict, have proved themselves worthy of the 
precious inheritance bequeathed to them by their fathers. 
They have given a new proof how impossible it is to 
conquer freemen fighting in defence of all that is dear to 
them. Henceforward we shall be respected by nations 
who, mistaking our character, had treated us with the 
utmost contumely and outrage. Years will continue to 
develop our inherent qualities, until, from being the 
youngest and the weakest, we shall become the most 
powerful nation in the universe. 

" Such is the high destiny which I persuade myself 
Heaven has reserved for the sons of freedom. 

" I rejoice also with you, gentlemen, at the return of 
peace under circumstances so fortunate for our fame and 
our interest. In this happy state of things the inex- 
haustible resources of our country will be unfolded, and 
the greatness for which she is designed be hastened to 
maturity. Amongst the private blessings thence to be 
expected I anticipate, with the highest satisfaction, the 
cultivation of that friendly intercourse with my neigh- 
bors and friends which has heretofore constituted so 
great a portion of my happiness." 

After the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister in 
the Florida campaign, while in Baltimore, a banquet was 
tendered him by some of his friends and admirers who 

265 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

resented the various attacks that were being made upon 
him. The toast of the evening was as follows : " An- 
drew Jackson — who, like the Carthaginian warrior, 
passed the prohibitive bounds of an enemy to close with 
him at home ; and, like Hannibal, victorious on the field, 
destined to be assailed in the Senate." 

Amid enthusiastic cheering Jackson rose and in a 
faltering voice gave forth the following : " What I have 
done," said he, " was for my country. Conscious that 
the first object of my heart has ever been to advance our 
prosperity and happiness, to receive the approbation of 
my fellow-citizens is to me a source of the highest grati- 
fication. It is the proudest reward of a soldier. Not 
only my public acts, but my private character has been 
assailed. I have been charged with personal, mercen- 
ary views in occupying Florida. I scorn to answer so 
degrading an accusation ; it is as base as it is absurd, 
and could only originate in bosoms destitute of every 
manly virtue. I have no fear but my country will do me 
justice." 

During the same period New York presented him with 
the freedom of the city, and Jackson made this graceful 
reply to Mayor Colden : 

" Sir, the distinguished honor which the Common 
Council of the city of New York has conferred by my 
admission as a freeman of their city is to me a source of 
the highest gratification, and will ever be recollected with 
feelings of the warmest sensibility. To be associated 
with those who have been distinguished for their patri- 
otism and zealous attachment to the republican prin- 
ciples of our government is the most exalted station of 
an American citizen. The approbation you have been 
pleased to express of my humble efforts in the field com- 
mands my grateful acknowledgments ; for those senti- 
ments I am indebted to the bravery of the troops I had 
the honor to command. 

266 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

" In what I have done for my country, had I erred in 
the discharge of my official duty, that error would have 
originated in the warmth of my devotion to her interest 
and a misapplication of the means best calculated to 
promote her happiness and prosperity. But to find that 
my conduct has been sanctioned by my government, and 
approved by my fellow-citizens, is a source of happiness 
unequalled in the occurrences of my life ; for the 
proudest honor that can grace the soldier, and the 
richest reward which he can receive for the fatigue, 
perils, and privations of his profession, is the approba- 
tion of a grateful country." 

Yet Jefferson says that he never finished a speech 
that he began. He would get so choked with passion 
and rage as to be compelled to sit down ! Jefferson 
must have been dreaming, and it is evident that he had 
no more love for the practical applicator of his theories 
than the said applicator had for the timid theorist. 
Jackson was not only a speaker, but a writer as well. 
His state papers contain some of the most brilliant and 
able productions in American records. One at least 
rises to a magnificent height. They will be considered 
in due course. 

In conversation, as has been noted, Jackson was 
shrewd, humorous, and racy. He was nearly as good 
a story-teller as President Lincoln, according to the 
testimony of those who knew him intimately. His wide 
experience of men and manners provided him with a 
rich fund of anecdote. Most of those stories have been 
unavoidably lost. Means for preserving such things in 
Jackson's time were limited, and men in general seemed 
not to be awake to the value of small details in enabling 
a true estimate of character to be arrived at. Great 
biographers sometimes disdain detailed information 
anyway. I have read many biographies of dif- 
ferent Americans, sometimes in search of a description 

267 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

of their personal appearance only to find them put 
down as " handsome," " imposing," " dignified," or 
what not, without the slightest information as to the 
color of an eye, the shape of a head, or the length of 
a nose. 

Some few instances of the general's repartee have 
been gathered by Buell and Parton. To one who 
expressed the opinion that in the dispute between Adams 
and Jackson there was a misunderstanding or a mis- 
apprehension, since neither of the contending parties 
would misrepresent a fact, and who said to him, " Mr. 
Adams is a man of infinite method; he is generally 
accurate, and in this instance it appears that he is sus- 
tained by his diary," Jackson replied : " His diary ! 
Don't tell me anything more about his diary ! Sir, that 
diary comes up on all occasions — one would think that 
its pages were as immutable as the laws of the Medes 
and Persians ! Sir, that diary will be the death of 
me!" 

In 1845 Polk selected James Buchanan for Secretary 
of State. To this selection Jackson vigorously ob- 
jected. Polk justified himself by pointing out that 
Jackson had himself appointed Buchanan minister to 
Russia during his first term. Polk confidently thought 
that this statement constituted an unanswerable argu- 
ment, but the general audaciously turned the tables on 
him by rejoining: 

" Yes, I did. It was as far as I could send him out 
of my sight, and where he could do the least harm ! I 
would have sent him to the North Pole if we had kept 
a minister there!" 

Mrs. Jerome Bonaparte, of Baltimore, she who had 
been Miss Patterson, once said to him while he was 
President, " General, there must be a sensation of ex- 
alted pride in feeling that you hold the place once 
held by Washington." 

268 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

" Yes, Madam," he replied in his most distinguished 
manner, with courtly bow and winning smile, " it is a 
sensation not unlike that which a gentleman must feel 
when he is honored by the society of Napoleon Bona- 
parte's sister-in-law." 

In this case I fear Jackson was guilty of one of the 
duplicities of courtesy, for he was never a particular 
admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte. When Miss Vaughan, 
the niece of the British minister, said to him: 

" Mr. President, you and General Washington enjoy 
a unique fame. No one else has ever defeated my 
countrymen." 

" That, my dear lady, is because we are descended 
from your countrywomen," he replied, quick as a flash 
and suave as a knight of the Round Table. 

In June, 1833, he visited Boston, where he was given 
a great reception. " The crowning glory of the day 
was his trip to Cambridge. There the general surveyed 
with rapt interest the site of the camp where Wash- 
ington's army assembled in 1775. Standing on the 
spot where the old headquarters flagstafif stood, he 
took ofif his hat, raised his right hand, and said : ' Let 
us be reverent here. This is the spot where our people 
first gathered in full force under a great commander to 
defend their rights. Let us in silence raise our right 
hands to the memory of Washington and his patriot 
army, with the single thought that our right hands 
shall ever keep the liberty theirs gained !' " 

" Few eyes were dry," said John Quincy Adams, 
commenting afterwards on this scene. 

On this occasion Harvard College conferred upon 
him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Buell thus de- 
scribes the scene : 

" Francis Bowen, leader of the Class of 1833, on 
behalf of the college boys, pronounced the salutatory in 
Latin. In the exordium he said : ' Harvard welcomes 

269 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Jackson as President. She embraces Jackson the 
Patriot.' Wild applause greeted this phrase— cheers 
from the people, college yells from ' the boys.' The 
general turned to Levi Woodbury and asked him to 
translate it. ' You're a college man, Woodbury,' he 
said, ' my Latin is a little rusty. All I can make out is 
something about patriots.' 

" Mr. Woodbury, who was a graduate of Dartmouth 
and a thorough classical scholar, gave an accurate trans- 
lation of Bowen's phrase. ' A splendid compliment, sir, 
a splendid compliment,' said Jackson. ' But why talk 
about as live a thing as patriotism in a dead language ?' 

" After the ceremony the undergraduates were all 
introduced to the President. As each one took the dis- 
tinguished guest's hand he addressed him by his new 
title, ' Doctor Jackson,' to the infinite edification and 
amusement of the grizzly old warrior. He then made a 
brief address of thanks and farewell. ' I shall have to 
speak in English, not being able to return your com- 
pliment in what appears to be the language of Harvard. 
All the Latin I know is E. Phiribus Unxim!' 'At which,' 
says Mr. Woodbury, 'there was even louder and 
longer applause than that which greeted Mr. Bowen's 
happy phrase ; but this was probably because the people 
could understand General Jackson's Latin better than 
they could Mr. Bowen's." 

From Josiah Quincy's " Figures of the Past" I ex- 
cerpt another account: 

" The exercises in the chapel were for the most part 
in Latin. My father [Josiah Quincy, president of Har- 
vard University. — C. T. B.] addressed the President 
[Jackson] in that language, repeating a composition 
upon which he somewhat prided himself, for Doctor 
Beck, after making two verbal corrections in his manu- 
script, held it to be as good Latin as a man need v/rite. 
Then we had some more Latin from young Mr. Francis 

270 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

Bowen, of the senior class, a gentleman whose name has 
since been associated with so much fine and weighty 
English. There were also a few modest words pre- 
sumably in the vernacular, though scarcely audible, 
from the recipient of the doctorate. 

" But it has already been intimated that there were 
two Jacksons who were at that time making the tour 
of New England. One was the person whom I have 
endeavored to describe, the other may be called the 
Jackson of comic myth, whose adventures were minutely 
set forth by Mr. Jack Downing and his brother humor- 
ists. [Jack Downing was a New York merchant, 
Charles A. Davis, who wrote a series of letters to the 
papers purporting to give an account of the journey, 
as if he were a correspondent with the Jackson party- 
There was, of course, not a word of truth in the ridicu- 
lous but witty nonsense that he perpetrated, although it 
mightily amused the readers thereof, and much of it is 
funny now. — C. T. B.] The Harvard degree, as be- 
stowed upon this latter personage, offered a situation 
which the chroniclers of the grotesque could in no wise 
resist. 

" A hint of Downing was seized upon and expanded 
as it flew from mouth to mouth, until at last it has 
actually been met skulking near the back door of his- 
tory in a form something like this : General Jackson, 
upon being harangued in Latin, found himself in a posi- 
tion of immense perplexity. It was simply decent for 
him to reply in the learned language in which he was 
addressed, but, alas ! the Shakespearian modicum of 
' small Latin' was all that Old Hickory possessed, and 
what he must do was clearly to rise to the situation and 
make the most of it. There were those college fellows 
chuckling over his supposed humiliation, but they were 
to meet a man who was not to be caught in the classical 
trap they had set for him. Rising to his feet just at the 

271 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

proper moment, the new Doctor of Laws astounded 
the assembly with a Latin address in which Dr. Beck 
himself was unable to discover a single error. A brief 
quotation from this eloquent production will be suffi- 
cient to exhibit its character : ' Caveat emptor; corpus 
delicti; ex post facto; dies xycb; e phiribus ununi; 
usque ad nauseam; Ursa Major; sic semper tyrannis; 
quid pro quo; requiescat in pace.' Now this foolery 
was immensely taking in the day of it, and mimics were 
accustomed to throw social assemblies into paroxysms 
of delight by imitating Jackson in the delivery of his 
Latin speech. The story was, on the whole, so good 
as showing how the man of the people could triumph 
over the crafts and subtleties of classical pundits that 
all Philistia wanted to believe it. And so it came to 
pass, as time went on, part of Philistia did believe it, 
for I have heard it mentioned as an actual occurrence by 
persons who may not shrink from a competitive exami- 
nation in history whenever government offices are to be 
entered through that portal." 

Adams characterized the conferring of this degree as 
" a sycophantic compliment," and spitefully and most 
im justly wrote in his diary, " As myself, an affec- 
tionate child of our Alma Mater, I would not be present 
ito witness her disgrace in conferring her highest liter- 
ary honors upon a barbarian who could not write a 
sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own 
name." 

Neither spelling nor grammar were Jackson's points, 
but, nevertheless, Adams's venemous charge is grossly 
exaggerated. 

" They are welcome, sir," said Jackson himself on 
one occasion, referring to a fear lest someone should get 
access to his private papers through a servant whom 
he insisted in retaining, " to anything they can get out 
,of my papers. They will find there, among other things, 

272 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

false grammar and bad spelling ; but they are welcome 
to it all, grammar and spelling included. Let them 
make the most of it. Our government, sir, is founded 
upon the intelligence of the people; it has no other 
basis ; upon their capacity to arrive at right conclusions 
in regard to measures and in regard to men; and I 
am not afraid of their failing to do so from any use 
that can be made of anything that can be got out of my 
papers." 

Before this visit to Boston he had been honored with 
a parade in New York. He refused to be driven in a 
carriage, saying that he wanted a horse that it took a 
man to ride. He was a daring and splendid horseman, 
but in this instance he got a fierce, unruly animal, which, 
as he was not properly bitted and as his rider had no 
spurs, Jackson had great difficulty in controlling. The 
violent efforts he made brought on another of those 
hemorrhages which he had so often experienced from 
the result of his old duel wound. 

After leaving Boston the Presidential party went on 
to New Hampshire. With them went Senator Isaac 
Hill, who has left some interesting reminiscences of 
the journey. Jackson was received by a committee at 
the State capital and to them he made the following 
remarks : 

" It gives me great pleasure to visit the State and 
greet the fellow-citizens of John and Molly Stark." 
Then he told them that he had the pleasure of being 
with President Monroe at the White House when he 
signed the special act of Congress granting a pension 
of sixty dollars a month to General Stark. " I was 
major-general commanding the southern division then," 
he said, " and called on the President to talk over the 
Indian troubles, which led to what some people call my 
unauthorized invasion of Florida the next year." (Pro- 
longed applause.) "While we were talking, Mr. 
i8 273 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Gouverneur (Monroe's private secretary) brought in 
some enrolled bills, and the one to pension General 
Stark was the first in the packet. The President looked 
at it, handed it to me, and asked, with a twinkle in his 
eye : ' Do you recommend the approval of this bill. 
General? I mean not in your present capacity as major- 
general, but as a Revolutionary soldier and comrade of 
General Stark?' I assured him I did — in both capaci- 
ties — and he at once signed the bill." (Tremendous 
applause.) 

Hill had arranged at Concord for a number of Revo- 
lutionary veterans to meet Jackson. Among them was 
one Jonathan Wells, of Amoskeag, eighty-nine years 
old, the patriarch of the party. He had served with 
Paul Jones when he captured the " Drake" and the 
" Serapis" in the " Ranger" and the " Richard." After 
a careful inspection of the President the aged man spoke 
to him as follows : 

" ' Gin'ral, you remind me a good deal of old Com- 
modore (meaning, of course, Jones) except you're some 
bigger'n he was; and from what I've heard and read 
about you, you're a good deal like him too — in par- 
ticular about the English! And I want to tell you, 
Gin'ral, that you and him gave them English the two 
d — dest lickings they ever got !' 

" The General's eyes were full of tears. ' Gentlemen,' 
he said, as soon as he could find voice, ' that is the 
most flattering compliment ever paid me, and I've en- 
joyed a good many!' He then declared that he could 
not sufficiently control his feelings to make a speech to 
them. But he had each of them run his finger along a 
furrow on the left side of his head, concealed by his 
thick hair. ' That is my certificate of service in the 
Revolution,' he said ; ' that scar is proof that I refused 
to black a British officer's boots when I was a prisoner 
of war !' " 

274 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

Apropos of the present revival of interest in Jones 
this statement, which Jackson made to Blair, and which 
Buell has preserved, is of abiding interest: 

" The whole corporation of admirals in naval history, 
sir, were not equal to Paul Jones ! They surrendered 
when their ships began to sink. But he just began 
to fight, sir, at that moment ! I have read Colonel Sher- 
burne's book about him, with his own letters. [Pub- 
lished in 1825.] The English called him a pirate. I 
venture to say that they held opinions of me at times 
not much different. He was the Washington of our 
navy ; Father of his Country on the sea !" 

I close this chapter by inserting the interesting and 
amusing correspondence between Jackson and Commo- 
dore Elliott anent the sarcophagus of Severus, which 
seems to have escaped the notice it merits from its un- 
conscious humor at the hands of most of his historians. 
I quote it from a curious volume published in 1846, enti- 
tled " Monument to the Memory of Andrew Jackson, 
containing Twenty-five Eulogies and Sermons Delivered 
on the Occasion of his Death." If Elliott had possessed 
the sense of humor that most sailors enjoy he would 
never have made so preposterous an offer, especially to 
a man like Jackson. The reply of the old hero closes, 
it will be noticed, with a touching tribute to his wife 
and a moving affirmation of his Christian faith. And 
the whole correspondence took place but a few months 
before his death. 

" Washington City, March 18, 1845. 

"My dear General: Last night I made something of a 
speech at the National Institute, and have offered for their 
acceptance the sarcophagus which I obtained at Palestine, 
brought home in the ' Constitution,' and believed to contain the 
remains of the Roman Emperor, Alexander Severus, w^ith the 
suggestion that it might be tendered you for your final resting- 
place. I pray, you, General, to live on in the fear of the Lord; 

275 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

dying the death of a Roman soldier, an emperor's coffin 
awaits you. 

" I am truly your old friend, 

" Jesse D. Elliott. 

" To General Andrew Jackson." 

" Hermitage, March 27, 1845. 

" Dear Sir : Your letter of the eighteenth inst., together with 
the copy of the proceedings of the National Institute, furnished 
me by their corresponding secretary, on the presentation by you 
of the sarcophagus for their acceptance, on condition it shall be 
preserved, and in honor of my memory, have been received, 
and are now before me. 

" Although laboring under great debility and affliction, from 
a severe attack from which I may not recover, I raise my pen 
and endeavor to reply. The steadiness of my nerves may per- 
haps lead you to conclude my prostration of strength is not so 
great as here expressed. Strange as it may appear, my nerves 
are as steady as they were forty years gone by, whilst, from 
debility and affliction, I am gasping for breath. 

" I have read the whole proceedings of the presentation by 
you of the sarcophagus and the resolutions passed by the board 
of directors, so honorable to my fame, with sensations and 
feelings more easily to be conjectured than by me expressed. 
The whole proceedings call for my most grateful thanks, which 
are hereby tendered to you, and through you to the president 
and directors of the National Institute. But with the warmest 
sensations that can inspire a grateful heart, I must decline 
accepting the honor intended to be bestowed. I cannot consent 
that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for 
an emperor or king. My republican feelings and principles 
forbid it; the simplicity of our system of government forbids 
it. Every monument erected to perpetuate the memory of our 
heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of the economy 
and simplicity of our republican institutions and the plainness 
of our republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our glo- 
rious Union, and whose virtue it is to perpetuate it. True 
virtue cannot exist where pomp and parade are the governing 
passions ; it can only dwell with the people — the great laboring 
and producing classes that form the bone and sinew of our 
confederacy. 

" For these reasons I cannot accept the honor you and the 
president and directors of the National Institute intended to 

276 



15 
O 

z 






> 

O 
ps 
w 

> 
n 
?^ 

o 
z 



o 
s 



M 

n 
S 

H 
> 
O 




SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 

bestow. I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these 
United States to be deposited in a sarcophagus made for an 
emperor or king. I again repeat, please accept for yourself, 
and convey to the president and directors of the National In- 
stitute, my most profound respects for the honor you and they 
intended to bestow. I have prepared a humble depository for 
my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, 
where, without pomp or parade, I have requested, when my 
God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid, for both of 
us there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to call the 
dead to judgment, when we, I hope, shall rise together, clothed 
with that heavenly body promised to all who believe in our 
glorious Redeemer, who died for us that we might live, and by 
whose atonement I hope for a blessed immortality. 

" I am, with great respect, 

" Your friend and fellow-citizen, 

" Andrew Jackson. 

" To Com. J. D. Elliott, United States Navy." 

" Navy Yard, Philadelphia, April 8, 1845. 

" Gentlemen : The interest which the National Institute has 
been pleased to take in the eventual bestowment of the remains 
of the honored Andrew Jackson in the sarcophagus which I 
brought from abroad and deposited in your institute makes it 
my business now to communicate to you a copy of his letter of 
the twenty-seventh ultimo, lately received, on that subject. 

" With sentiments so congenial to his strict republicanism — 
and in accordance, indeed, with the republican feelings common 
to ourselves — he takes the ground of repugnance to connecting 
his name and fame in any way with imperial associations. 

" We cannot but honor the sentiments which have ruled his 
judgment in the case, for they are such as must add to the 
lustre of his character. We subscribe to them ourselves; and 
while we yield to their force, we may still be permitted to con- 
tinue our regard to the enduring marble, as to an ancient and 
classic relic — a curiosity in itself, and particularly in this coun- 
try, as the first of its kind seen in our Western Hemisphere. 

" From it we would deduce the moral, that, while we should 
disclaim the pride, pomp, and circumstance of imperial 
pageantry, as unfitting our institutions and professions, we 
would sedulously cherish the simpler republican principle of 
reposing our fame and honors in the hearts and affections of 
our countrymen. 

277 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" I have now, in conclusion, to say that, as the sarcophagus 
was originally presented with the suggestion of using it as 
above-mentioned, I now commit it wholly to the institute as 
their own and sole property, exempt from any condition. 

" I am, very respectfully, yours, &c., 

" Jesse Duncan Elliott. 
" To the President and Directors of the National Institute at 

Washington," 



278 



XIV 

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

Of all the temptations that have come to me in the 
literary field, that which would fain move me to write 
a history of Jackson's administration is the hardest to 
be resisted. Indeed, in preparing this book the hard 
thing has been to determine, not so much what, as 
what not, to write. 

No other man who ever occupied the Presidential 
chair had so strenuous a time of it as Jackson. No man 
ever fought harder for what he believed to be right 
during his tenure of office than he. To no man except 
Lincoln were such grave questions submitted for adju- 
dication. In one instance — Nullification — Jackson was 
enabled to render the greatest public service of any 
President prior to i86i. On the other hand, during his 
regime, and with him actively participating, was estab- 
lished a most pernicious practice — the Spoils System — 
which debauched the administration of public affairs 
for nearly three-quarters of a century, and from which 
enlightened public opinion has but slowly been able to 
disentangle them. 

Midway between this great service and its balancing 
disservice, the most conspicuous achievement in his 
whole career, save the New Orleans campaign and his 
Nullification position, was his war on the Second Bank 
of the United States. I think it is now generally ad- 
mitted that the elimination of that bank and the doing 
away with the financial system associated with it has 
been beneficial on the whole. In books people — authors, 
historians! — still rise up full of sound and fury and 

279 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

denounce Jackson's course as iniquitous, notwithstand- 
ing their somewhat reluctant but still undoubted ap- 
proval of the end at which he aimed. Outside of books, 
however, the matter is settled. No one can predicate 
the future, but it seems certain that the system which de- 
pended upon the establishment and maintenance of 
such a bank will probably never again prevail in the 
United States. Efforts to charter a similar institution 
have been made several times — not in recent years, how- 
ever — but always unavailingly. Were the bank in ex- 
istence now in this age of graft (I sometimes wonder 
if it is such an age of graft as the hue and cry would 
fain persuade us) it is appalling to think what a source 
of corruption such a colossal monetary monopoly in 
alliance with the government, and to a certain extent 
under its legislative and executive control, would be. 
Yet other countries maintain similar financial institu- 
tions and manage to exist with them with probably as 
much honesty in their administration of affairs as there 
is in ours. 

Aside from Nullification, the Spoils System, and the 
War on the Bank, there were minor occurrences in Jack- 
son's administration for which he should, and does, re- 
ceive great credit. Through him was enforced the pay- 
ment of the spoliation claims by France, although his 
methods were shockingly undiplomatic, and by a mes- 
sage to Congress in which he threatened to use force 
unless payment was made at once he affronted the whole 
French nation and seriously jeoparded the settlement 
he meant to further! France had delayed payment un- 
duly and " it seemed to Jackson that this state of things 
called for spirited action. Moreover, Livingston wrote 
a very important despatch from Paris, in which he said 
that there was a disposition in France to wait and see 
what the (President's) message would be; also that 
the moderate tone of the United States up to this time 

280 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

had had a bad effect. ' From all this you may imagine 
the anxiety I shall feel for the arrival of the President's 
message. On its tone will depend, very much, not only 
the payment of our claims, but our national reputation 
for energy.' " The national reputation for energy did 
not suffer in Jackson's hands ! The message was suffi- 
ciently peppery in its tone to exceed Livingston's fondest 
expectations — and no doubt greatly dismayed him. 

It was only by accepting the mediation of England 
and thus giving the French people time to see that 
such a paper as Jackson's did not absolve them from 
the payment of their just and formally acknowledged 
debts that the matter wa? amicably settled at last. And 
Jackson was not any too happy in the thought that he 
owed anything at all to England, either. As usual, in 
this matter he had a right end in mind, to bring about 
which he went at it in the wrong way. However, the 
great fact in the popular mind was that he did things. 
In common but expressive phrase, Jackson " got there." 
The American people love the ability to do things, " to 
get there," more than almost any other quality in man — 
or woman, for that matter! 

Jackson ascribed his success to his " perseverance in 
the demands of justice, and took occasion to admonish 
other powers, if any, inclined to evade those demands 
that they would never be abandoned." 

Again, the question of trade between the United 
States and the British West Indies had been a source 
of irritation and dissatisfaction ever since the establish- 
ment of the nation. Jackson brought this question to 
a happy issue and established proper trade relations 
which have subsisted until this day. 

The setting apart of the Indian Territory and the 
translation of the southern Indians thereto also took 
place under Jackson's auspices. 

It is not pretended that the Indians were treated with 

281 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

absolute fairness. So far as I can learn, after much 
study of our Indian affairs, absolute justice has rarely 
characterized the course of the United States, but this 
was perhaps the best — certainly the most feasible — 
method of dealing with the question, which was at one 
time so acute that the State of Georgia defied the 
Supreme Court, which had decided against it in a case 
involving the rights of the Creek nation. The imperium 
in imperio maintained by the Creeks within the sover- 
eign state of Georgia presented an intolerable state of 
affairs. 

The enforcement of the decision of the court rested, 
properly enough, with the Executive. Jackson, who 
liked neither Marshall, the Chief-Justice, nor the court's 
view of the matter, did nothing. " John Marshall has 
pronounced his judgment," he chuckled, " now let him 
enforce it, if he can!" Quite a different position did 
the President take when another State defied him, as 
representing the United States. 

Jackson's course in checking the disposition of Con- 
I gress to appropriate money to make indefinite and ex- 
pensive internal improvements at the public expense un- 
doubtedly stopped an infinite number of jobs and set a 
mark for succeeding administrations. On the tariff 
Jackson was a limited protectionist, tending towards 
lower duties, a tariff for revenue only, and ultimately to 
free trade. 

" ' The tariff might,' Jackson declared, ' be constitu- 
tionally used for protective purposes ; but the deliberate 
policy of his party was now plainly intimated. In his 
first message he ' regretted that the complicated restric- 
tions which now embarrass the intercourse of nations 
could not by common consent be abolished.' In another 
message he wrote that ' as long as the encouragement 
of domestic manufactures' was ' directed to national 
ends ... it should receive from him a temperate but 

282 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

steady support.' But this must be taken in connection 
with another statement in the same paper to the effect 
that the people had a right to demand ' the reduction of 
every tax to as low a point as the wise observance of 
the necessity to protect that portion of our manufactures 
and labor, whose prosperity is essential to our national 
safety and independence, will allow.' " 

While in the Senate during his second term he had 
written : 

" It is well known that I am in favor ... of en- 
couraging by a fair competition the manufacture of the 
national means of defence within ourselves, and not to 
depend in time of war to procure those means from the 
precarious source of commerce, which must always be 
interrupted by war, and, as in the last war, could not 
be obtained, and when obtained it was at a war price, 
to the great injury of the treasury. I am for pursuing a 
plan that will insure our national defence and national 
independence, encourage our agricultural portion of the 
community, and with it manufactures and commerce 
as handmaids of agriculture, and look to the tariff — 
after these objects are obtained — with an eye to revenue, 
to meet and extinguish our national debt. This is my 
course; my conscience tells me it is right, and I will 
pursue it." 

In the case of Texas, Jackson brought about its 
recognition, and ardently favored its incorporation in 
the Union, for which he was in large measure responsi- 
ble ; and he cannot be held guiltless of participation in 
the outrageous bullying to which Mexico was subjected 
by the United States.* " I determined," he wrote to 
Lewis, " to use my influence, after the battle of San 
Jacinto, to have the independence of Texas acknowl- 



* For a comprehensive description of this national iniquity see 
my book, The Conquest of the South West. 

283 



\ 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

edged and to receive her into the Union. But that arch 
enemy, J. Q. Adams, ralHed all his forces to prevent 
its annexation to the U. States. We must regain 
Texas : peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must. . . . 
I repeat that the safety as well as the perpetuation of 
our glorious Union depends upon the retrocession of the 
whole of that country, as far as the ancient liinits of 
Louisiana, to the U. States." 

This brief resume fairly enough presents the more 
important acts of Jackson's administration and will suf- 
fice to make intelligible the attempt to show forth his 
personal feelings and methods in the conduct of greater 
affairs. Nullification and the War on the Bank form 
the subjects of succeeding chapters. 

Jackson's experience in political life was not nearly so 
great as that of any of the preceding Presidents of the 
United States. In 1796-7 he had spent one year as 
member of Congress. In 1797-8 he was for six months 
United States senator from Tennessee. In 1822-3-4-5 
he was again a senator from that State. Altogether, his 
legislative experience extended over a little more than 
three years. Nor did he render any conspicuous ser- 
vice, or take any great part in public affairs, or do or 
say anything which calls for further discussion here. 
He became a candidate for the Presidency in 1824, and 
although he received a plurality over Adams, Crawford, 
and Clay, his other competitors, he did not obtain the 
constitutional majority of votes. The election went to 
the House of Representatives and Adams was elected. 
Jackson was nominated again in 1828 and overwhelm- 
ingly elected over Adams, his only other competitor. 
He was reelected in 1832 by a greatly increased ma- 
jority. Such was his hold upon the people that he 
literally designated his own successor, Martin Van 
Buren. I insert here a table giving the electoral votes 
.received by Jackson in his three campaigns : 

284 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 



ELECTORAL VOTE FOR PRESIDENT. 







1824. 


1828. 


1839. 


States. 


a 


1— > 

V 

Ui 
T3 

C 
< 


a 

a 
•a 
"J! 

6" 

a 



2 
u 




S 
V 


s 


t 

•a 

B 

5 


a 

•a 

<: 
6- 

a 
•— > 


d 


in 

u 
ti 

'— > 

u 
u 

■a 
c 


U 

c 


-0 


a 



a 


<0 

■3 




f 


Alabama 

Connerticut 


5 








7 










2 


8 
I 






8 
3 








3 

4 

5 
6 


7~)f»lotvarf* 




2 

9 




9 
3 
5 

14 
S 
I 

s 


8 
3 

"s 

6 
15 

'8 

8 

16 

4 


II 

5 
9 

"5 
10 

3 

4 
4 
7 
8 
42 

15 
21 

30 




















2 
5 


I 




















7 

8 








14 


IS 








Louisiana 


3 


2 
9 
3 

IS 










9 

lO 

I ¥ 


I 












Maryland 

M jm<;arliu«;f*tts; 


7 


5 
14 






2 


13 

13 
14 

IS 

i6 

17 
i8 


Missiisippi 


3 






3 
3 






















New Hampshire. . 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina. , . 
Ohio 


"i 
I 

IS 


8 




3 


















26 


5 


4 


20 

15 
16 

28 






















16 




19 

90 


Pennsylvania 

Rhnrlf* Island 


28 














4 






4 








21 

22 

23 
24 


South Carolina . . . 

Tennessee 

Vi^i*mnnt 


II 
II 






II 
II 


II 












7 


IS 








7 










7 




Vircrinia. 




24 




24 


23 
























Total 


99 


84 


41 


37 


178 


83 


219 


49 


II 


7 


2 



In 1824, exclusive of Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, 
New York, South Carolina, and Vermont, in which the 
electors were chosen by the Legislature, the popular 
votes were, in round numbers, Jackson, 156,000 ; Adams, 
105,000; Crawford, 44,000, and Clay, 47,000. In 1828, 

28s 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

excluding Delaware, South Carolina, Maine, New York, 
Maryland, and Tennessee, where the votes were cast 
by the Legislatures or by districts, the popular vote was 
648,273 for Jackson to 508,064 for Adams. Jackson 
got only one vote from New England, from a Maine 
district where the vote was, Jackson, 4223 ; Adams, 
4028. In Tennessee Jackson received 44,000 to 2000 
for Adams. In Pennsylvania, 100,000 to 50,000 for 
Adams. Apropos of the Keystone State, Adams sneer- 
ingly referred to Pennsylvanians as people " whose 
fanatical passion for Andrew Jackson can be compared 
to nothing but that of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, 
for Bottom after his assification." 

In 1828, with South Carolina alone voting by Legis- 
lature, Jackson received 707,000 votes ; Clay, 329,000 ; 
Wirt, 255,000. In deep disgust Wirt declared his belief 
that Jackson could have been reelected for life if he had 
wished. On the other hand, Sumner writes : " There 
was some talk of a third term for Jackson, but it never 
grew strong. The precedents were cited against it. 
Jackson's bad health and Van Buren's aspirations were 
perhaps stronger objections. Adams says that Jack- 
son had ' wearied out the sordid subserviency of his 
superiors.' That is not at all improbable." As to that 
last fling, Jackson was more strongly entrenched than 
ever before in the popular favor on the day he left the 
Presidency ; and, what is more, ever since his death he 
has been growing stronger in both the critical and the 
popular estimation. 

Parton maintains that in these contests " nearly all the 
talent, nearly all the learning, nearly all the ancient 
wealth, nearly all the business activity, nearly all the 
book-nourished intelligence, nearly all the silver-forked | 
civilization of the country, united in opposition to Gen- 
eral Jackson, who represented the country's untutored 
instincts." This is another one of those general state- 

286 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

ments which are so hard to combat, although they are 
by no means true. 

What did Jackson himself think of the Presidency? 
Naturally, a man could not be as prominent as Jackson, 
nor do the things which Jackson had done, nor be at- 
tacked as Jackson was attacked, nor defend himself as 
Jackson had defended himself, without being considered 
for President; and, notwithstanding much vociferous 
testimony to the contrary, in some respects Jackson was 
an ideal candidate. Lloyd Bryce in the American Coin- 
momvealth says, " Firmness, common-sense, and, most 
of all, honesty, and honesty above all suspicion of per- 
sonal interest, are the qualities which the country 
chiefly needs in the first magistrate." This is almost a 
description of Jackson so far as it goes. And then he 
was a military hero, the greatest and most conspicuous 
in the country, and Americans have ever loved the suc- 
cessful soldier. Scott, among those who have aspired to 
it, is the only successful soldier who has failed of attain- 
ing the Presidency, unless it be Hancock, who is hardly 
great enough to come under the designation. 

Beside all this, Jackson "was in accord with his 
generation. He had a clear perception that the toiling 
millions are not a class in the community, but are the 
community. He knew and felt that government should 
exist only for the benefit of the governed; that the 
strong are strong only that they may aid the weak ; 
that the rich are rightfully rich that they may so com- 
bine and direct the labors of the poor as to make labor 
more profitable to the laborer. He did not comprehend 
these truths as they are demonstrated by Jefferson and 
Spencer, but he had an intuitive and instinctive percep- 
tion of them. And in his most autocratic moments he 
really thought that he was fighting the battle of the 
people and doing their will while baffling the purposes 
of their representatives." The people finally came to 

287 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

think so too, and they think it more and more as time 
dims the rancor of party hatreds and enables the human 
mind, so prone to prejudice, to see clearly and accu- 
rately and to decide without bias. 

But Jackson neither sought nor desired the Presidency 
at first. Modesty was not the general's strong point, 
and yet he was quite decided that his talents did not run 
in that direction. Judge Breckinridge, Jackson's sec- 
retary in Florida, thus refers to Jackson's own opinion 
of himself: " I shall never forget the evening (in Pen- 
sacola, 1821) when, in the presence of Mr. Henry Wil- 
son and some other gentlemen, he took up a New York 
newspaper in which he was mentioned as a probable can- 
didate for the office of President of the United States. 
After reading it he threw it down in anger. ' Do they 
think,' said he, ' that I am such a d — d fool as to think 
myself fit for President of the United States ? No, sir ; 
I know what I am fit for, I can command a body of 
men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.' 
We were silent, but all gave him credit, as I afterwards 
found, for this proof of good sense. He had resolved 
to retire from public life and pass the remainder of his 
days in peace and quiet on his farm." 

William B. Lewis, who knew Jackson better than any 
of his friends and contemporaries, said : " When Jack- 
son was fighting the battles of his country, and ac- 
quiring for himself and it imperishable glory, he never 
once thought, as I verily believe, of reaching the Presi- 
dency. He did not dream of such a thing — the idea 
never entered his imagination. All he aimed at or de- 
sired at the time was military renown, acquired by 
patriotic services. This he prized far above all civil 
fame, and does even now, if I know anything of the 
feelings of his heart. He was naturally and essentially 
a military man." 

A member of the Tennessee Legislature wrote Jack- 

288 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

son a letter proposing his nomination, closing with this 
sentence, " All we want is the belief that you will per- 
mit your name to be used." To which the general ' 
replied : " I have earnestly to request my friends, and 
beg of you, not to press me on an acceptance of the ap- 
pointment. If appointed, I could not decline, and yet, 
in accepting it, I should do great violence to my wishes 
and my feelings. The length of time I have passed in 
public service authorizes me to make this request, which 
with my friends, I trust, will be considered reasonable 
and proper." 

His friends were not to be denied, however, and 
through their efforts he was placed actively in nomina- 
tion. Concerning his part in the course of events there- 
after he wrote thus to Captain Donelson : " In this con- 
test I take no part. I have long since prepared my 
heart to say with heart-felt submission, ' May the Lord's 
will be done.' If it is intended by Providence that I 
should fill the Presidential chair, I will submit to it 
with all humility, and endeavor to labor four years with 
an eye single to the public good, imploring the guidance 
of Providence in all things. But be assured, it will be 
an event that I have never wished nor expected. My 
only ambition was to spend the remainder of my days 
in domestic retirement with my little family. It has 
turned out otherwise, to my great annoyance." 

His position, apparently, was not desirous, but recep- 
tive. I do not mean this in the ordinary sneering sense 
in which a public man is now said to be in a receptive 
condition. I explain it in his own words to Colonel 
Wilson : " That General Jackson's course requires 
neither falsehood nor intrigue to support it. He has 
been brought before the nation by the people without 
his knowledge, wishes, or consent. His support is the 
people. And so long as they choose to support him, 
as to himself he will not interfere. He will neither 
ig 289 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

resign his pretensions, intrigue, nor combine with any 
man nor set of men, nor has he ever combined or in- 
trigued." 

In February, 1824, he wrote as follows to Major 
Lewis : 

" The Presidential question begins to agitate the 
minds of the people much. The attempt of a small 
minority of the members of Congress to get up a caucus 
and force public opinion to take up a particular candi- 
date will still agitate it more, and I trust will eventuate 
in prostrating the caucus system altogether. Should the 
people suffer themselves to be dictated to by designing 
demagogues who carry on everything by intrigue and 
management, they cannot expect to see their present 
happy government perpetuated. It must sink under the 
scenes of corruption that will be practised under such 
a system ; and, in time, open bribery may, and I have 
no doubt will, be resorted to to obtain a seat in a Presi- 
dential chair if the people do not assume their rights of 
choosing a President for themselves." 

And again he writes later to the same : " I have no 
doubt if I was to travel to Boston where I have been 
invited that it would ensure my election. But this I 
cannot do. I would feel degraded for the balance of 
my life. If I ever fill that office it must be the free 
choice of the people. I can then say I am the Presi- 
dent of the nation, and my acts shall comport with that 
character." 

After the election and the choice of Adams by the 
House of Representatives he emphatically re-stated his 
position to Samuel Swartwout in the following words: 
" I did not solicit the office of President ; it was the 
frank and flattering call of the freemen of this coun- 
try, not mine, which placed my name before the nation. 
When they failed in their colleges to make a choice, no 
one beheld me seeking, through art or management, to 

290 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

entice any representative in Congress from a conscien- 
tious responsibility to his own, or the wishes of his 
constituents. No midnight taper burnt by me; no 
secret conclaves were held ; nor cabals entered into to 
persuade any one to a violation of pledges given or of 
instructions received. By me no plans were concerted 
to impair the pure principles of our republican institu- 
tions, nor to prostrate that fundamental maxim, which 
maintains the supremacy of the people's will. On the 
contrary, having never in any manner, either before the 
people or Congress, interfered in the slightest degree 
with the question, my conscience stands void of offence, 
and will go quietly with me, regardless of the insinua- 
tions of those who, through management, may seek an 
influence not sanctioned by integrity and merit." 

In his own opinion of his unfitness for the Presidency 
— which he got bravely over before very long! — Jack- 
son was sustained by the opinions of a great many 
public men. Indeed, the unanimity with which they 
regarded him as an impossible occupant of the executive 
chair, and the publicity they gave to their feelings, was 
perhaps one of. the reasons why he changed his mind as 
to his own unfitness. Clay was the principal antagonist 
of Jackson an4, the chief advocate of Adams's election 
by the House. |He had before expressed his opinion of 
Jackson and did not hesitate to do so unreservedly at 
this period : 

" As a friend of liberty, and to the permanence of 
our institutions," he wrote to Francis Brooks, *' I can- 
not consent, in this early stage of their existence, by 
contributing to the election of a military chieftain, to 
give the strongest guaranty that the republic will march 
in the fatal road which has conducted every other re- 
public to ruin." So again he wrote to Blair : " Mr. 
Adams, you know well, I should -never have selected, 
if at liberty to draw from the whole mass of our citi- 

291 



\ 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

zens, for a President. But there is no danger in his 
elevation now or in time to come. Not so of his com- 
petitor, of whom I cannot beHeve that killing two thou- 
sand five hundred Englishmen at New Orleans quali- 
fies for the various difficult and complicated duties of 
the chief magistracy." These were his honest opinions. 
How could he vote to make Jackson President? 

As to the charge that Jackson was a military chief- 
tain, the general closes his letter to Swartwout with 
this famous defence : " I became a soldier for the good 
of my country. Difficulties met me at every step, but I 
thank God it was my good fortune to surmount them. 
The war over, and peace restored, I retired to my farm 
to private life, where, but for the call I received to the 
Senate of the Union, I should have contentedly re- 
mained. I have never sought office or power, nor have 
I ever been willing to hold any post longer than I could 
be useful to my country, not myself; and I trust I 
never shall. If these things make me one, I am a 
' military chieftain.' " 

Gallatin thus contributed his meed of dispraise. 
'' Andrew Jackson was an honest man, and the idol of 
the worshippers of military glory, but from incapacity, 
military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and con- 
stitutional provisions, entirely unfit for the office of 
President." 

Senator Mills wrote of him that " he was considered 
extremely rash and inconsiderate ; tyrannical and des- 
potic in his principles. A personal acquaintance with 
him has convinced many who had these opinions that 
they were unfounded. He is very mild and amiable in 
his disposition, of great benevolence, and his manners, 
although formed in the wilds of the West, exceedingly 
polished and polite. Everybody that knows him loves 
him, and he is exactly the man with whom you (his 
wife) would be delighted. . . . He has all the ardor 

292 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

and enthusiasm of youth and is as free from guile as an 
infant. ... A personal acquaintance with him has dis- 
sipated all my prejudices. . . . But with all General 
Jackson's good and great qualities, I should be very 
sorry to see him President of the United States. His 
early education was very deficient, and his mode of 
thinking and habits of life partake too much of war 
and military glory." 

And Jefferson did not hesitate to contribute to the 
chorus of detraction : " I feel very much alarmed at 
the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He 
is one of the most unfit men I know of for the place. 
He has had very little respect for laws or constitutions, 
and is, in fact, an able military chief. Plis passions are 
terrible. He has been much tried since I knew him, 
but he is a dangerous man." On the other hand, Jack- 
son's courtly bearing won for him all the ladies. Web- 
ster wrote : " General Jackson's manners are more 
Presidential than those of any of the candidates. He is 
grave, mild, and reserved. My wife is for him de- 
cidedly." Adams, the Gadfly statesman, referred to him 
as " a barbarian and savage who could scarcely spell his 
name." 

The enmity between Jackson and Clay arose from 
Clay's attempt to have Jackson censured in Congress 
for that famous Florida campaign. Clay, in his speech, 
tried to avoid any suspicion of personal animosity. " I 
must cheerfully and entirely," he said, " acquit General 
Jackson of any intention to violate the laws of the 
■country or the obligations of humanity. I am per- 
suaded from all I have heard that he considered himself 
as equally respecting and observing both." And again : 
" I hope not to be misunderstood ; I am far from inti- 
mating that General Jackson cherished any designs in- 
imical to the liberty of the country. I believe his inten- 
tions to be pure and patriotic." Yet his peroration was 

293 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

as intense as though Jackson had been engaged in con- 
spiracy and treason. 

Jackson, however, was not molHfied or placated by 
these expressions. The attack was ill-advised. It 
proved the most calamitous and far-reaching of Clay's 
political mistakes. " The rage and disgust of the gen- 
eral," says Parton, " when he read the speech were 
extreme. The long feud between General Jackson and 
Mr. Clay dated from the delivery of this speech. Jack- 
son never hated any man so bitterly and so long as he 
hated Henry Clay." 

Thereafter he and Clay were the most inveterate 
enemies. That Clay failed to realize his lifelong ambi- 
tion to the Presidency was entirely due to Jackson. 
Clay added fuel to the fire of hatred engendered be- 
tween them by bringing about the election of Adams 
by the House of Representatives. By the Constitution 
only the three candidates receiving the highest number 
of votes could be voted for by the House. Clay's vote 
was exceeded by those of Jackson, Adams, and Craw- 
ford. Naturally, Clay threw his influence and vote to 
Adams and secured his election. Adams appointed 
Clay his Secretary of State, and so far as he could 
approved of him as his successor when he should retire. 

Jackson iDecame so convinced that the election of 
Adams and the appointment of Clay was the result of a 
corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay that he re- 
peated the charge everywhere and believed it to the day 
of his death, although it was thoroughly disproved 
eventually. Clay's preference for Adams was natural 
and understandable. Clay was shrewd enough to see 
that, for one thing, Adams would never be such a rival 
as Jackson would be. As Clay was a good fighter, so 
he was a good hater. He was a natural, human man, 
and he had no more love for Jackson than Jackson had 
for him. Why should he have voted for Jackson? 

294 




JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
From a photograph 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

Adams publicly delivered himself thus concerning the 
charge of corrupt bargaining: " Prejudice and passion 
have charged Mr. Clay with obtaining office by bar- 
gain and corruption. Before you, my fellow-citizens, in 
the presence of your country and Heaven, I pronounce 
that charge totally unfounded. This tribute of justice is 
due from me to him, and I seize with pleasure the oppor- 
tunity afforded me of discharging the obligation." 

Jackson's tendency, it must be admitted, was to be- 
lieve ill of those whom he hated. It is not statesman- 
like, but it is human, although deplorable. He was 
not convinced by the repeated denials and disclaimers. 
With Clay it was a case of " Give the devil a bad name," 
for " it was, moreover, a fixed idea in the general's 
mind that the secret originator of the calumnies against 
Mrs. Jackson was no other than Mr. Clay. Mr. Clay 
solemnly denied and completely disproved the charge, 
but he could never remove that fixed idea from the soul 
of General Jackson." 

Jackson's administration might be characterized as a 
long, bitter fight with Clay, in which " Harry of the 
West" came out second best. If Andrew Jackson had 
not been on the scene, I think there is little doubt that 
Clay would have become President of the United States. 
Clay's famous statement that " I would rather be right 
than be President" may be taken with a grain of salt. 
At any rate, he never was President and he was fre- 
quently wrong, although I do not for a moment believe 
that Jackson's opinion of him was justified. 

Jackson's hatred of Clay was so intense that when he 
became President he could not wait a second to relieve 
him from office. Carl Schurz calls attention to the 
following: "On March 4, just before he went to the 
Capitol to take the oath of office, he put into the hands 
of Colonel James A. Hamilton, of New York, his 
trusted adherent, a letter running thus : 

295 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" ' Sir : You are appointed to take charge of the Department 
of State, and to perform the duties of that office until Governor 
Van Buren arrives in this city. 

" ' Your obedient servant, 

" ' Andrew Jackson.' 

A strange proceeding! Colonel Hamilton's account of 
what then took place is characteristic: 'He (General 
Jackson) said, " Colonel, you don't care to see me 
inaugurated ?" " Yes, General, I do ; I came here for 
that purpose." " No ; go to the State House, and as 
soon as you hear the gun fired, I am President and you 
are Secretary, Go and take charge of the department." ' 
Colonel Hamilton did as directed, and the moment the 
gun was fired the danger that Clay might still exercise 
any influence in the State Department was averted from 
the country." 

Four years after he had retired from the Presidency 
he wrote thus of Clay to the Nashville Union: 

"Sir: Being informed that the Hon. Henry Clay, of Ken- 
tucky, in his public speech at Nashville yesterday alleged that 
I had appointed the Hon. Edward Livingston Secretary of State 
when he was a defaulter, and knowing him to be one, I feel 
that I am justified in declaring the charge to be false. It is 
known to all the country that the nominations made by the 
President to the Senate are referred to appropriate committees 
of that body, whose duty it is to inquire into the character of 
the nominees, and that if there is any evidence of default, or 
any disqualifying circumstances existing against them, a rejec- 
tion of the nomination follows. Mr. Livingston was a member 
of the Senate from the State of Louisiana when he was nomi- 
nated by me. Can Mr. Clay say he opposed the confirmation of 
his nomination because he was a defaulter? If so, the journals 
of the Senate will answer. But his confirmation by the Senate 
is conclusive proof that no such objection, if made, was sus- 
tained, and I am satisfied that such a charge against him could 
not have been substantiated. 

" I am also informed that Mr. Clay charged me with appoint- 
ing Samuel Swartwout collector of the port of New York, 
knowing that he had been an associate of Aaron Burr. To this 

296 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

charge it is proper to say that I knew of Mr. Swartwout's 
connection with Aaron Burr, precisely as I did that of Mr. 
Clay himself, who, if the history of the times do not do him 
great injustice, was far from avoiding an association with Burr 
when he was at the town of Lexington in Kentucky. Yet 
Mr. Clay was appointed Secretary of State, and I may say, 
confidently, with recommendations for character and fitness not 
more favorable than those produced to me by the citizens of 
New York in behalf of Mr. Swartwout. Mr. Clay, too, at the 
time of his appointment to that high office, it will be recollected, 
was directly charged throughout the Union with having bar- 
gained for it, and by none was this charge more earnestly made 
than by his present associates in Tennessee, Messrs. Bell and 
Foster. 

" Under such circumstances how contemptible does this 
demagogue appear when he descends from his high place in 
the Senate and roams over the country retailing slanders 
against the living and the dead." 

To this communication Clay made an immediate re- 
ply, giving a correct outline of his speech, and asserting 
that he had spoken of General Jackson and his measures 
only in proper and becoming terms. " With regard," 
he concluded, " to the insinuations and gross epithets 
contained in General Jackson's note, alike impotent, 
malevolent, and derogatory from the dignity of a man 
who has filled the highest office in the universe, respect 
for the public and for myself allow me only to say 
that, like other similar missiles, they have fallen harm- 
less at my feet, exciting no other sensation than that of 
scorn and contempt. 

" The only line of policy clearly foreshadowed when 
Jackson took the oath of office was ' to reward his 
friends and punish his enemies,' and this he relentlessly 
pursued, whether the victim was treated with anger or 
courtesy." 

The second campaign of Jackson for the Presidency 
has been noted as one conducted with peculiar virulence. 
Bitter personalities of a character which have more 

297 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

than once disgraced our Presidential campaigns since 
then, but which it is fondly hoped are now eliminated 
forever, were indulged in. We have seen how Jackson's 
wife was attacked. It must be admitted that some of 
the Jackson papers were not slow to make rejoinders 
in kind. 

Jackson himself was subjected to every kind of per- 
sonal abuse. His duels were recalled to public atten- 
tion. Even in those times large and influential numbers 
of our citizens sternly reprobated resorting to the code, 
but it was the practice, nevertheless, of a great majority 
of gentlemen, especially in the South, and most people 
thought then, and think now, none the less of Jackson 
because he did defend his wife's honor at the pistol 
point. Yet he was openly called a murderer for this 
and for his military executions. As an evidence of the 
ability with which Jackson's campaign was carried on 
I note the following rejoinder to that charge : 

" But there was a paragraph of two or three lines, 
which was set afloat in the Jackson newspapers in the 
course of the summer, that probably did as much as all 
their publications to remove the impression made on the 
average voter by the case of the six militiamen and the 
executions in Florida. This was the paragraph: 



" ' COOL AND DELIBERATE MURDER. 

" ' Jackson coolly and deliberately put to death upward of 
fifteen hundred British troops on the eighth of January, 1815, 
on the plains below New Orleans for no other offence than that 
they wished to sup in the city that night.' 



" This was a crushing and blinding argument. For 
those who could not read it, there was another, which 
was legible to the most benighted intellect. In every 
village, as well as upon the corners of many city streets, 
was erected a hickory pole. Many of these poles were 

298 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

standing as late as 1845, rotting mementoes of the de- 
lirium of 1828." 

Now in the systematic effort which has been made 
to belittle Jackson, it is stated that he was by no means 
the choice of the people ; that there was nothing what- 
ever spontaneous about his nomination and election ; 
that the people were manipulated by a band of expert 
politicians, who for selfish ends desired to see Jackson 
President; that the general himself was a mere child, 
a puppet, in the hands of those managers ; that the 
apparent popularity of Jackson was not real ; and, 
lastly, that if left to themselves the people would have 
left Jackson to himself. Such a charge is not un- 
common. I recall modern instances where Presidents 
have been elected by overwhelming majorities, in which 
the same claim has been made. Such a statement is an 
insult to the intelligence of the American people and 
argues an exiguous mind in the maker of it. 

Now it is quite true, perhaps, that the four-pronged 
silver forkers were in the main against the general, and 
that those who used steel with two tines and sometimes 
exploited the knife-blade as a shovel were for Jackson. 
Yet you cannot write an indictment of fatuous folly, 
expressed in an utter inability to know what they want, 
against seven hundred thousand people. I have no 
doubt that Jackson's campaigns were ably managed. 
So were those of Cleveland, McKinley, or Roosevelt, 
but I question very much whether management in politi- 
cal campaigns has a great deal to do with elections, 
after all. I am sometimes of the opinion that in most 
of the Presidental elections the winning candidates 
would have been elected by substantially the same votes 
they received if the election had been held on the day 
after nomination. What a relief — financial, mental, 
journalistic — it would be if some such course could be 
brought about, by the way. Of course there are cases 

299 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

where the elections happen to be closely contested, where 
little things, as Dr. Burchard, may turn the scale, but, 
generally speaking, this is not so. 

Parton, who is frequently right in his conclusions or 
deductions and is almost invariably so in his facts or 
premises, wisely says : " Respecting the character of 
Andrew Jackson and his influence, there \yill still be 
differences of opinion. One fact, however, has been 
established: during the last thirty years of his life he 
was the idol of the American people. His faults, what- 
ever they were, were such as a majority of the Ameri- 
can citizens of the last generation could easily forgive. 
His virtues, whatever they were, were such as a ma- 
jority of the American citizens of the last generation 
could warmly admire. It is this fact which renders him 
historically interesting. Columbus had sailed ; Raleigh 
and the Puritans had planted; Franklin had lived, 
Washington fought, Jefferson written ; fifty years of 
democratic government had passed ; free schools, a free 
press, a voluntary church, had done what they could to 
instruct the people; the population of the country had 
been quadrupled and its resources increased tenfold; 
and the result of all was, that the people of the United 
States had arrived at the capacity of honoring Andrew 
Jackson before all other living men. People may hold 
what opinions they will respecting the merits or de- 
merits of this man ; but no one can deny that his invin- 
cible popularity is worthy of consideration ; for what 
we lovingly admire, that, in some degree, we are." 

Exactly ! If Jackson was a knave or a fool, then 
pretty much all Americans were to be included in the 
same categories. 

As Colyar puts it : " The most real issue in the Presi- 
dential contest of 1828 was one which was not stated 
at the time nor generally perceived. The question was 
whether ' universal suffrage,' so called, was to have any 

300 




ANDREW JACKSON 

From the engraving made in 1852 by Thomas B. Welch of the portrait 
by Thomas Sully, then in the possession of Francis Preston Blair 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

practical effect in the United States. Down to that 
period in the history of the republic the educated few 
had kept themselves uppermost. Cabinets, Congress- 
men, Legislatures, governors, mayors, had usually 
been chosen from the same class of society as that from 
which governing men of Europe are chosen. Public 
life was supposed to require an apprenticeship as much 
as any private profession. In short, the ruling class in 
the United States, as in all other countries, was chiefly 
composed of men who had graduated at colleges and 
had passed the greater part of their lives on car- 
pets. . . . The sceptre was about to be wrested from 
the hands of those who had not shown themselves 
worthy to hold it. When they felt it going, however, 
they made a vigorous ckitch, and lost it only after a 
desperate struggle." 

Jackson's election, therefore, was in a certain sense a 
rebellion, the result of a struggle on the part of the 
plain people, then, as always, in the great majority, to 
exercise their functions of citizenship as they had never 
been exercised before. The Democratic party was the 
creation of a revolution. It had to come sooner or later, 
and it was fortunate for the United States that it came 
when it did and that it had Andrew Jackson for its 
protagonist. 

" The old Federal party was the rich man's party ; 
the new Democratic party was the poor man's party; 
and of all the various differences between them, this 
was the most real and essential one." " The Democratic 
party speedily split in two wings under the leadership 
respectively of the great Tennessean and his great rival 
of Kentucky," says Schouler, " and never did popular 
parties opposed to one another respond to personal 
guidance so heartily as those which now grew up under 
the leadership of those fierce combatants, always at 
variance with each other, Clay and Jackson — the one 

301 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

combining popular elements too intelligent and opinion- 
ated not to show signs of jealous dissension, the other 
having a blind democracy for a nucleus so dense, so 
devoted, and M^ithal so carefully disciplined that rivalry 
was kept low and political mutiny punishable, as though 
by martial law." Outside of the Jackson and Clay 
Democrats there was for a time little else considered in 
the way of political parties. The Federalists were dead 
at last, and beyond resuscitation apparently. 

Yet Jackson was the very man who had dispatched to 
President Monroe the following sapient peace-instilling 
proposition about party feeling. I am afraid the general 
was slightly inconsistent at times : "... in every sec- 
tion party and party feeling should be avoided. Now is 
the time to exterminate the monster called party spirit. 
By selecting characters most conspicuous for their pro- 
bity, virtue, capacity, and firmness, without any regard 
to party, you will go far to, if not entirely, eradicate 
those feelings which, on former occasions, threw so 
many obstacles in the way of government, and perhaps 
have the pleasure and honor of uniting a people hereto- 
fore politically divided. The chief magistrate of a great 
and powerful nation should never indulge in party feel- 
ings. His conduct should be liberal and disinterested, 
always bearing in mind that he acts for the whole and 
not a part of the community. By this course you will 
exalt the national character and acquire for yourself a 
name imperishable as monumental marble. Consult no 
party in your choice; pursue the dictates of that un- 
erring judgment which has so long and so often bene- 
fited our country and rendered conspicuous our rulers. 
These are the sentiments of a friend. They are the feel- 
ings — if I know my own heart — of an undissembled 
patriot." 

Jackson was so overwhelmingly elected in 1828 and 
again in 1832 that it is idle to ascribe his election to 

302 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

anything but himself. The years between his rejection 
by the House of Representatives and his election by the 
people materially changed his views. " Could I but 
withdraw from the scenes that surround me to the 
private walks of the Hermitage, how soon would I be 
found in the solitary shades of my garden, at the tomb 
of my dear wife, there to spend my days in silent sor- 
row, and in peace from the toils and strife of this life, 
with which I have been long since satisfied. But this is 
denied me. I cannot retire with propriety. When my 
friends dragged me before the public, contrary to my 
wishes and that of my dear wife, I foresaw all this evil, 
but I was obliged to bend to the wishes of my friends, 
as it was believed it was necessary to perpetuate the 
blessings of liberty to our country and to put down 
misrule. My political creed compelled me to yield to 
the call, and I consoled myself with the idea of having 
the counsel and society of my dear wife; and one term 
would soon run around, when we would retire to the 
Hermitage and spend our days in the service of our 
God." 

During that first term, however, he became as anxious 
for the office as any one, although, having been vindi- 
cated by his first election, he had originally contemplated 
but one term. When he resigned from the Senate he 
referred with approbation to a proposed amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States limiting the 
power of the President in the selection of members 
of Congress for government position in the follow- 
ing terms : " I would impose a provision rendering any 
member of Congress ineligible to office under the general 
government during the term for which he was elected 
and for two years thereafter, except in cases of judicial 
office." Yet he appointed more members of Congress 
than any of his predecessors and fought tooth and nail 
for a second term, or would have had it been necessary. 

303 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Truly an ofifice looks differently as it is viewed from out 
or in, and many a man is changed radically and finds 
his opinions must be completely reversed, to say nothing 
of his plans, after some honor has been thrust upon him. 
Finding himself involved in controversies, with un- 
settled affairs hanging over him, he was compelled to 
stand for reelection. 

As to the charge that after his election Jackson was 
a puppet in the hands of astute politicians, his so-called 
" Kitchen Cabinet" of unofficial but paramount advisers, 
it seems to be too absurd to require refutation, for if 
there ever was a man who was an autocrat in the Presi- 
dential chair, who did what he pleased, whether his 
friends or advisers liked it or not, it was Jackson. 
Schouler has discriminatingly pointed out this difference 
between Jackson and Jefferson. " No President ever 
ruled these United States in times of peace with a per- 
sonal supremacy so absolute as the two great chieftains 
of our democracy, Jackson and Jefferson, though in 
methods and character they were so little alike. The one 
was a born manager of men, the other a stern dictator ; 
the one philanthropic to the socially oppressed, the other 
a hater rather of the social oppressor ; each, however, 
influenced by love of country, which was a ruling pas- 
sion, by constitutional restraints somewhat independ- 
ently interpreted, and, in later life at least, by an uncon- 
scious bias to the side of the South whenever slavery was 
threatened with violence by Northern agitators. This 
last in Jefferson weakened his practical efforts in the 
anti-slavery cause, though he was anti-slavery in senti- 
ment to the end; in Jackson, who thought himself no 
worse for being a master, if a kind one, it stimulated 
the determination to make his section strong enough to 
hold out against the abolitionists, for abolitionists and 
nullifiers were all hell-hounds of disunion. Jefferson 
had gently manipulated Congress ; Jackson ruled in de- 

304 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

fiance of it, and by arraying the people, or rather a 
party majority, on his side against it, until the tone of 
his message, if not really insolent, was that of con- 
scious infallibility." 

He goes on to say that " Jackson's attitude towards 
Congress was a singular one, such as no other President 
ever maintained. He did not flatter the legislature and 
at the same time lead it gently in the direction desired ; 
still less did he wait patiently for its free will to be 
manifested. As its course pleased or displeased him, 
he would show anger, defiance, delight, but passive he 
could not be. Yet he gained great influence over it; 
and this was by always holding before Congress and 
himself the idea that he stood with the people behind 
him, determined to fulfil the people's wishes, and to 
punish in their name whoever dared oppose their will." 

During his famous dispute with the Senate over its 
censure of his removal of the government deposits from 
the Bank of the United States he was asked to transmit 
to the Senate a paper he had read before his Cabinet 
explaining his action. Jackson kept his paper and 
transmitted this haughty reply instead: 

" The Executive is a coordinate and independent 
branch of the government equally with the Senate, and 
I have yet to learn under what constitutional authority 
that branch of the legislature has a right to require of 
me an account of any communication, either verbally or 
in writing, made to the heads of departments acting as 
a Cabinet Council." 

While not a conceited man in the unpleasant sense 
of the term Jackson was profoundly sure, not only that 
he was right, but that he would succeed in making 
everybody else believe so. During his first term of 
office he went on an excursion on a steamer down the 
Chesapeake. " The boat was a crazy old tub, and the 
waves were running high. An aged gentleman on 
20 30s 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

board exhibited a good deal of alarm, * You are un- 
easy,' said the general to him ; ' you never sailed with 
me before, you see.' " Once " in allusion to his early 
history, he quoted Shakespeare's sentiment, ' There is a 
tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, 
leads on to fortune.' ' That's true, sir,' said he with 
emphasis, ' I've proved it during my whole life.' " 

As Parton says, " Jackson had that kind of assurance 
of safety and success which Caesar had in his fortunes 
and Napoleon in his star." 

Concerning the charge that he was a pawn moved at 
pleasure by the astute members of his " Kitchen Cabi- 
net," Lewis, Hill, Kendall, Duff Green, Blair, and so 
on, — men who held no offices or who were in subor- 
dinate positions but who were Jackson's chief friends 
and counsellors, — Schouler says : 

" Jackson ruled by his indomitable force of will, his 
tenacity of purpose, courage, and energy. He did not 
investigate or lean upon advice, but made up his mind 
by whatever strange and crooked channels came his 
information, and then took the responsibility. Experi- 
ence made him rapid rather than rash, though he was 
always impulsive ; and he would dispatch the business 
which engaged his thoughts, and that most thoroughly. 
Though stretched on the bed of sickness, he held the 
thread of his purpose where none could take it from 
him ; his will rallied and beat under the body. He 
decided affairs quickly, and upon impulse more than 
reflection ; but his intuitions were keen, often pro- 
found, in politics as well as war. His vigor as an 
Executive at his time of life was truly wonderful. He 
left nothing in affairs for others to finish, betrayed no 
sign of fear or timidity, shrank from no burden how- 
ever momentous, but marched to the muzzle of his 
purpose, and, like an old soldier, gained half the ad- 
vantage in a fight by his bold despatch and vigor. The 

306 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

night march and surprise were points he had learned in 
Indian warfare; and were it war or poHtics, he car- 
ried out what he had fixed upon with constant intre- 
pidity. This intrepidity went with a conscious sense of 
duty; for, though a Cromwell in spirit, Jackson's am- 
bition was honestly to serve his country. Loyalty to 
the Union, sympathy with the American common people, 
were the chief impulses of his being, for all he loved 
power; and hence a majority was almost sure to sus- 
tain him. Courage and directness the people admire in 
any man, and a sordid or usurping nature they are apt 
to discover. Jackson had the Midas touch, which could 
transmute whatever he handled, if not into solid gold, 
at least into a substance of popularity. And yet no 
servant of the ballot-box felt less the need of courting 
popularity or of waiting for public opinion to bear his 
plans forward. Lesser statesmen might be exponents, 
but he led on, leaving the public to comment as it 
might." 

So thoroughly his own was his policy that, according 
to Sumner, he considered his reelection in 1832 " a 
triumphant vindication of him in all the points in which 
he had been engaged in controversy with anybody, and 
a kind of charter to him as representative, or rather 
tribune, of the people to go and govern on his own 
judgment over and against everybody, including Con- 
gress. His action about the Cherokee Indians, his atti- 
tude towards the Supreme Court, his construction of his 
duties under the Constitution, his vetoes of internal im- 
provements and the bank, his defence of Mrs. Eaton, 
his relations with Calhoun and Clay, his discontent with 
the Senate — all things, great and small, in which he 
had been active and interested were held to be covered 
and passed upon by the voice of the people in his reelec- 
tion." Well, not quite ; for, as Sumner continues : 
" We may test this theory in regard to one point, the 

307 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

bank. The Legislature of Pennsylvania on the second 
of February, 1832, within eight months of the election 
of Jackson, at which Jackson got three-fifths of the 
vote of Pennsylvania, instructed the senators and repre- 
sentatives in Congress from that State, by a unanimous 
vote in the Senate and by 'j'j to 7 in the House, to 
secure the recharter of the bank." 

Some of the reasons for Jackson's popularity have 
been given and others are apparent. He was integrity 
personified. In his own words, he entered upon his 
duties determined " to ask nothing that is not clearly \ 
right, and to submit to nothing that is wrong." From 
the conclusions at which he arrived, oftentimes by a 
wide jump, he was never to be driven by popular an- 
tagonisms : " I care nothing about clamors, sir, mark \ 
me !" he declared. " I do precisely what I think just ; 
and right." 

" With the same freedom as though he were deciding 
what fields of his farm should be ploughed, he simply 
applied his common-sense, so far as he could with his 
acute personal prejudices, to the various subjects that 
arose or were forced upon him. No one thought him 
venal, and few thought he had moral obliquity. Hence, 
however violent and vindictive he might be, a large 
majority of the people believed him honest and well 
meaning, and his dreadful independence, directness, 
and force prompted them equally to believe that he fully 
understood what he was about and was sufficiently right 
in his course." 

A German visitor to America in a curious book, 
" Aristokratie in America," reports a conversation be- 
tween two senators who were attempting to explain 
Jackson's popularity. They said he acted upon two 
maxims, " Give up no friend to win an enemy," and ; 
" Be strong with your friends and then . you can defy 
your enemies." Jackson was certainly loyal to his 

308 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

friends and equally a good hater of his enemies, but 
that he acted entirely on these principles cannot be main- 
tained. It would rob him of the credit of any disin- 
terested action for his country's good. Did he crush 
the United States Bank because Biddle was his enemy? 
Did he take his stand on nullification because Calhoun 
was his enemy? If Calhoun had been his friend, would 
he have allowed the nullifiers to run their course un- 
checked? If Clay had been his friend, would he have 
allied himself with the United States Bank? Benton 
was once his bitter enemy and nearly killed him. Did 
he allow that enmity to shape his course forever? 
While in the army he quarrelled bitterly with General 
Scott over military questions. So much so that a duel 
was thought inevitable. When he went to Washington 
on his second senatorial term the following peaceful 
correspondence took place between the two doughty 
warriors. 

" Sir," wrote Scott, " one portion of the American 
community has long attributed to you the most dis- 
tinguished magnanimity, and the other portion the 
greatest desperation in your resentments — am I to con- 
clude that both are equally in error? I allude to cir- 
cumstances which have transpired between us, and 
which need not here be recapitulated, and to the fact 
that I have now been six days in your immediate 
vicinity without having attracted your notice. As this 
is the first time in my life that I have been within a 
hundred miles of you, and as it is barely possible that 
you may be ignorant of my presence, I beg leave to 
state that I shall not leave the District before the morn- 
ing of the fourteenth instant." 

" Sir," replied Jackson, " your letter of to-day has 
been received. Whether the world are correct or in 
error as regards my ' magnanimity' is for the world 
to decide. I am satisfied of one fact, that when you 

309 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

shall know me better, you will not be disposed to harbor 
the opinion that anything like * desperation in resent- 
ment' attaches to me. Your letter is ambiguous ; but, 
concluding from occurrences heretofore that it was 
written with friendly views, I take the liberty of saying 
to you that whenever you shall feel disposed to meet 
me on friendly terms, that disposition will not be met 
by any other than a corresponding feeling on my part." 

I can hardly understand that mental state which per- 
sistently seeks for hidden motive — generally in the hope 
of finding a low one — for every action, although the 
apparent cause is so easily discerned that it is almost 
impossible to overlook it, and so adequate that it requires 
a deal of argument to get around it. Suspicion is a 
mental state which is not uncommon, it would seem. I 
cannot see why great men and their actions should 
not be estimated, whenever it is possible, by what ap- 
pears on the surface. For instance, Schouler, who tried 
hard to be impartial, says that Jackson's mind " was 
incapable of that mature and impartial investigation 
which alone enables one to reach just conclusions, and 
impulse controlled his decision. But Jackson's intuitions 
were keen; a glance of his searching eye told him 
more of a man than volumes of testimony ; and yet 
intuition will lead astray. His want of political in- 
formation was compensated by native sagacity ; and 
the great secret of his success consisted in keeping the 
common people, the majority, constantly by his side." 

Now Schouler admits that Jackson was possessed of 
keen intuitions and great native sagacity. The infer- 
ence is that his intuitions often led him to a just con- 
clusion and that his native sagacity usually controlled 
his decision. If he reached just conclusions, why say 
that they were the result of intuition and native sagacity 
and deny that Jackson was capable of mature and 
impartial investigation ? 

310 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

Parton cuts loose from facts with this bold assertion : 
" It was the habit of General Jackson's mind to at- 
tribute the conduct of his opponents to the lowest mo- 
tives from which that conduct could be imagined to 
proceed." If that were true and Jackson were alive 
now, he could say that his biographers had learned to 
estimate him in the same way. Sumner continues the 
attack as follows : " Jackson's modes of action in his 
second term were those of personal government. He 
proceeded avowedly, on his own initiative and respon- 
sibility, to experiment, as Napoleon did, with great 
public institutions and interests. It came in his way to 
do some good, to check some bad tendencies, and to 
strengthen some good ones; but the moment the his- 
torian tries to analyze these acts, and to bring them, 
for the purposes of generalization, into relations with 
the standpoint or doctrine by which Jackson acted, that 
moment he perceives that Jackson acted from spite, 
pique, instinct, prejudice, or emotion, and the influence 
exerted sinks to the nature of an incident or an acci- 
dent." 

Oh, hardly ; and that statement depends on the mind 
of the " historian," does it not ? Let us examine that 
charge a little. According to Sumner, Jackson was the 
meanest and most contemptible of men. Was there no 
feeling of honor, patriotism, or the public good in Jack- 
son's mind? What a reflection on the intelligence of 
the American people! If for eight years they idolized 
a man who acted merely from " spite, pique, instinct, 
hatred, prejudice, or emotion" in the greatest crises 
which have faced the American people between the 
Revolution and the Civil War, the overruling power 
of Providence — if Sumner be correct — was never more 
signally exhibited, since Jackson, although it is alleged 
he acted from those unworthy motives, generally acted 
right ! 

311 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Says Fiske with clearer view : " Now in the case of 
Andrew Jackson, while he was not versed in the history 
and philosophy of government, it is far from correct to 
say that there was nothing of the statesman about him. 
On the contrary, it may be maintained that in nearly all 
of his most important acts, except those that dealt with 
the civil service, Jackson was right. ^ 

Of course, Jackson made mistakes. What President 
has not? Frequently the methods he used were not in 
consonance with the uprightness of the end at which 
he aimed, as has been seen. But the sweeping statement 
that he acted invariably from unworthy motives is an 
evidence of the extreme into which prejudice can lead 
historians, Schouler slightly inclines towards Jackson, 
but takes middle ground, as usual. Is the middle 
ground supposed to be the impartial and correct position 
merely because it is "middle"? 

" Strong in all his traits of character, his vices as well 
as his virtues, Jackson's public example was one of 
positive good and positive evil — a mixture of brass and 
clay. There could be nothing negative about him. 
What he purposed, that he put his hand to and bore it 
safely through. His mind moved rapidly, and with an 
; almost lightning-like perception he had resolved the \ 
i point while others were deliberating; and, right or 
wrong, he was tenacious of his conclusion, and fought 
to have his way like one who felt it shame not to win. 
There was no twilight of dubiety about him ; he knew, 
and knew earnestly ; and within the steel horizon which 
bounded his vision he could pierce the circumference in 
all directions. As his intellect admitted of no half- 
truth, so did his nature revolt at bargains and com- 
promises such as Clay, his mortal enemy, was an adept 
at arranging ; but with him it was to conquer or die on 

* Italics mine. 
312 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

every occasion, win a clean victory or endure a clean 
defeat." 

The most reprehensible act in Jackson's whole career 
was his opening the way for the introduction of the 
Spoils System. Since the establishment of the govern- 
ment, appointed officials, especially those of minor im- 
portance, had enjoyed practically a life-tenure of office, 
dependant, of course, upon good behavior. The higher 
the rank and dignity of the office the more frequent the 
changes that took place, but even then the rule generally 
obtained. The number of changes made by all the 
Presidents prior to Jackson did not exceed seventy-five, 
of whom five were defaulters and two were removed 
for cause. Although there were frequently radical dif- 
ferences between successive Presidents, it never seems 
to have occurred to anyone that diflferences of opinion 
about public questions were grounds for the removal of 
government employes until Jackson's term. Accus- 
tomed as we have been of late years, until the slow 
growth of a sentiment for civil-service reform, to the 
sweeping changes in office with every change of the 
party in power, we perhaps regard Jackson's action as 
equally drastic and thorough. On the contrary, by the 
testimony of Benton, he removed only about four 
hundred — one out of every sixteen — postmasters, and 
the total number of removals among all employes of 
the government from all causes was less than seven 
hundred ! Nor was Jackson ruthless in the removals, ' 
although they undoubtedly caused much suffering, the 
report of which has, no doubt, been greatly exaggerated. 
Rogers preserves the following anecdote in his recent 
life of Benton : 

" The collector at Salem was General Miller, a Fed- 
eralist, whom Jackson had marked for dismissal. He 
had nominated his successor. Benton heard this news 
with great agitation and approached the President at 

313 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

once, asking if he knew who this General Miller was. 
He did not. 

" ' He is the hero of Lundy's Lane,' said Benton. 

" ' The man who, when asked to take a battery, said, 
"I'll try"?' 

" ' The very man.' 

" ' By the Eternal !' shouted Jackson as his fist came 
down on the table, ' that man shall be in office as long 
as Jackson is President,' and the order for dismissal was 
at once revoked." 

It was not so much the number of officeholders Jack- 
son turned out as the fact that he introduced the prac- 
tice which, by a perfectly understandable natural law, 
grew with every succeeding administration, until each 
successive change of party witnessed the introduction 
of an entirely new set of employes from the highest to 
the lowest; and all parties since Jackson's day must 
share in the odium of the practice. 

Now, bad as was this action of Jackson's, — worse in 
its consequences than in itself, — there was some excuse 
and some explanation for it. The bitterness engendered 
and manifested in his Presidential campaigns has been 
alluded to. This created a feeling of intense enmity 
between the dominant political parties that extended to 
the humblest members thereof, and government em- 
ployes and officials took part in the campaign as they 
had never done before. Jackson, who had been assailed 
in his tenderest points, knew this, and he came to re- 
gard everyone who belonged to the opposite party as 
personally responsible for the calumnies of which he, 
his wife, and even his mother had been made victims. 
Yet he solemnly declared to Dr. Edgar, his spiritual 
adviser, only six weeks before his death, that during 
his Presidency " he had turned but one subordinate out 
of office by an act of direct, personal authority, and he 
was a postmaster. Dr. Edgar expressed his astonish- 

314 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

ment at this statement, when the general repeated it 
with emphasis and particularity." 

That, I have no doubt, is true, but it is misleading, 
for it is beyond contradiction that Jackson knew and 
approved of the changes and removals which were 
taking place around him. It may confidently be assumed 
that had he not sanctioned them they never would have 
taken place. The famous declaration of the principle 
in politics that " to the victors belong the spoils" did not 
originate with Jackson. Governor Marcy of New York 
was the author of that doctrine in a famous speech of 
which I quote a paragraph : 

" It may be, sir, that the politicians of New York are 
not so fastidious as some gentlemen are as to dis- 
closing the principles on which they act. They boldly 
preach what they practise. When they are contending 
for victory, they avow their intention of enjoying the 
fruits of it. If they are defeated, they expect to retire 
from office; if they are successful, they claim, as a 
matter of right, the advantages of right, that to the 
victor belongs the spoils of the enemy." 

Jackson never considered himself a politician. If, 
as it is used in modern days, the word implies an ability 
to control elections for selfish purposes and for per- 
sonal ends, then Jackson's view of himself was correct. 
If by a politician, however, we mean a man who is able 
to bring about any result he desires for the good, as he 
sees it, of his fellow-citizens, through his influence with 
them, then Jackson was the most consummate politician 
of his period. 

Not only was he a politician, but he might rightly be 
characterized as a political boss. He named and brought 
about the election of his successor, and although the 
party he both fathered and advocated was afterwards 
defeated by Harrison, yet he was the moving cause in 
the election of Polk. Jackson was not a politician in the 

315 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

sense that he was a manipulator and creator of a 
machine as the word was used in New York, yet he did 
not hesitate to express his admiration for the methods 
used and the success which attended their use, to secure 
the control of the Empire State by the Democratic party. 
" I am no politician," he said one day to a young New 
Yorker, " but if I were a politician, I would be a New 
York politician." 

Van Buren, whom he appointed Secretary of State, 
was an especial object of friendship and admiration on 
the part of the general. It was Van Buren who had 
drafted the resolution giving the thanks of New York 
" to Major-General Jackson, his gallant officers and 
troops, for their wonderful and heroic victory." Par- 
ton characterizes Van Buren, "like the party of which 
he was the leader," as having " learned his principles 
from Thomas Jefferson and his tactics from Aaron 
Burr. This remark explains both his career and his 
party's." This is very unjust to a President who was 
the only one in the long line of chief executives between 
Jackson and Lincoln who is thought worthy of inclusion 
in the category of American statesmen. Of course, in 
such wholesale appointings as took place in Jackson's 
term many incompetent and some dishonest officials were 
given berths. Of that Schouler has this to say : " The 
vicious character of so many of Jackson's appointments 
to office one should ascribe chiefly to haste, his political 
ignorance, and the peculiar instinct which guided his 
selection. He was honest and upright in the general 
endeavor to give to his countrymen a high and noble 
administration, and in most points of general policy he 
showed a rare sense in dealing with men and events, 
such as his enemies could not easily appreciate." 

Parton sums up the whole unfortunate afifair rather 
deftly as follows : " At whose door is to be laid the 
blame of thus debauching the government of the United 

316 



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POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

States? It may, perhaps, be justly divided into three 
parts. First, Andrew Jackson, impelled by his ruling 
passions, resentment and gratitude, did the deed. No 
other man of his day had audacity enough. Secondly, 
the example of the politicians of New York furnished 
him with an excuse for doing it. Thirdly, the original 
imperfection of the governmental machinery seemed to 
necessitate it. As soon as King Caucus was overthrown, 
the spoils system became almost inevitable, and, perhaps, 
General Jackson only precipitated a change which, 
sooner or later, must have come." Right in every par- 
ticular, gentle biographer ! 

Jackson left the Presidency probably with greater 
feelings of satisfaction than any man before or after 
him ever entertained in laying down his great office. 
" I saw," says Benton, " the patriot ex-President in the 
car which bore him ofT to his desired seclusion. I saw 
him depart with that look of quiet enjoyment which 
bespoke the inward satisfaction of the soul at ex- 
changing the cares of office for the repose of home." 
He had succeeded in everything he had undertaken — 
save in the social war which he had waged on the 
women of Washington in behalf of Mrs. Eaton. He 
had overthrown the most powerful personal and political 
enemies that had ever combined to thwart a Presidential 
will. He had brought about the ruin of the greatest 
official institution of the century. He had preserved the 
Union and prevented a civil war. He went out of office 
with a popularity vastly greater than he had when he 
went in. Buell sums up the good work of his admin- 
istration as follows : 

" Looking back through his eight years in the Presi- 
dency, he saw some things well done, some half done, 
others still to be done. Among the things well done 
were the destruction of a huge chartered monopoly to 
which the government had lent its power and prestige 

317 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

for the enrichment of the few — the Bank of the United 
States, which he had forced to a plane no more for- 
midable than that of a Pennsylvania corporation. A 
civil service of fungous growth upon the body politic, 
aristocratic, oligarchical, self-perpetuating, and modelled 
in servility after that of England, had been rooted out 
and an American, democratic, and free-for-all system 
substituted in its place.* A heresy threatening to strike 
at the vitals of our national existence had been put 
down ; not, indeed, so thoroughly eradicated as he could 
wish, but as thoroughly as all the elements with which 
he had to deal would permit. The Indians, an ever- 
growing tumor so long as they held territory and semi- 
independent sovereignty within the boundaries of States, 
had been peacefully removed to a reservation in the far 
West, where they could be happy in their own way and 
be free from the wiles and pitfalls of the white men — at 
least for many years or even generations to come. 
These, with many other things of minor import, had 
been well done." 

The things that he had left partly done and things 
that had not been done at all were inconsiderable com- 
pared to those above cited; they referred to the tariff, 
the currency, the Texas-Mexican question, and the 
Oregon bovmdary dispute. He had accomplished more 
in his eight years of office than any other President 
before him, and he had left the future administration 
of affairs in the hands of the man of his choice. 

On March 2, 1837, he wrote to Trist, " On the fourth 
I hope to be able to go to the Capitol to witness the 
glorious scene of Mr. Van Buren, once rejected by the 
Senate, sworn into office by Chief- Justice Taney, also 



* Which a more enlightened public sentiment is in turn 
" rooting out" in favor of a properly constituted civil-service 
system. — C. T. B. 

318 



POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT 

being rejected by the factious Senate." Sumner says: 
" The election of Van Buren is thus presented as an- 
other personal triumph of Jackson, and another illus- 
tration of his remorseless pursuit of success and ven- 
geance in a line in which anyone dared to cross him. 
This exultation was the temper in which he left office. 
He was satisfied and triumphant. Not another Presi- 
dent in the whole list ever went out of office in a satis- 
fied frame of mind, much less with a feeling of having 
completed a certain career in triumph." 

On his retirement he published an able, interesting, 
and in parts a most pathetic farewell address, which I 
have included in its entirety with other valuable papers 
in the Appendix. He had spent all of his salary in the 
duties of his office and had been forced to borrow money 
to eke it out. His household expenses were large, his 
hospitality of the true Southern variety, lavish and un- 
stinted, and his generosity to his old friends and com- 
rades-in-arms was without limit. 

" I returned home," he writes to Mr. Trist, " with just 
ninety dollars in money, having expended all my szXzry 
and most of the proceeds of my cotton crop ; found 
everything out of repair ; corn, and everything else for 
the use of my farm, to buy; having but one tract of 
land besides my homestead, which I have sold, and 
which has enabled me to begin the new year (1838) 
clear of debt, relying on our industry and economy to 
yield us a support, trusting to a kind Providence for 
good seasons and a prosperous crop." 



319 



XV 

NULLIFICATION 

South Carolina, which led the great Secession 
movement in 1860-61, had previously, in 1832, passed 
an ordinance nullifying certain acts of Congress relating 
to the tariff and formally declaring its intention to leave 
the Federal Union in case any attempt was made by the 
United States to enforce the act or to coerce the State.* 

There have always been two opinions about the right 
of a State to secede from the Federal Union. Probably 
there are two opinions now, although the question has 
become purely academic since the settlement of the 
Civil War. Yet, considered as an abstract question of 
constitutional interpretation, there is probably as much 
to be said on one side as on the other. Nor in our his- 
tory have threats of secession been confined to South 
Carolina or other Southern States. Some of the good 
old New England States had indicated secession as a 
possible final alternative long before South Carolina 
advocated it. However, the attempt is naturally more 
closely associated with South Carolina than with any 
other State of the country, for South Carolina tried it, 
once alone and a second time as the leader of a band 
of " wayward sisters." In the first instance the ques- 
tion at issue was the tariff, while in the second the 
preservation of slavery was the inducing cause. 

In the first attempt the firmness of Jackson, coupled 
with the compromising spirit of Congress, saved the 
Union and postponed ultimate decision of the mooted 

* The Ordinance of Nullification is printed in full in the 
Appendix. 

320 




JOHN C. CALHOUN 
From a photograph 



NULLIFICATION 

point. In the second case the question was finally settled 
by the arbitrament of force. In 1832 South Carolina 
considered herself unjustly discriminated against by a 
tariff bill which had recently become a law, and rather 
than stand that, solemnly resolved to be a republic by 
herself. The great advocate of nullification was Cal- 
houn. The preserver of the Federal Union was Jackson. 
These were the two protagonists of a tremendous drama 
interesting in every feature of it. 

The first act was played in 1830 on the thirteenth of 
April, Jefiferson's birthday, the occasion being a sub- 
scription dinner to honor the memory of the founder of 
the Democratic party. Jefferson had been dead four 
years. Jackson, of course, attended the dinner. As 
was usual in those days, there was a long string of 
regular toasts and then the guests were urged to volun- 
teer sentiments. The regular toasts smacked terribly 
of Nullification and Secession, although the South Caro- 
lina nullifying ordinance was still in the womb of the 
future. It was well known to Jackson that this would 
be the case, and he had carefully prepared himself and 
had attended the dinner with a deliberate purpose to 
meet the issue. 

Courtesy enjoined that the opportunity for the first 
volunteer toast should be given the guest of honor, 
the President of the United States. At the conclusion 
of the regular toasts, therefore, the President, who had 
been a keen observer of all that had happened and an 
interested listener to the various sentiments which had 
been exploited, rose to offer his own. So flagrant and 
outspoken had been the spirit of the meeting that many 
guests, unwilling to countenance Nullification and its 
inevitable corollary. Secession, had left the banqueting 
hall. Wiser ones, imagining that the President would 
not let the situation pass unchallenged, had remained. 

They had their reward. 

21 321 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

The hush that fell over the assemblage as the tall, 
spare form of the Chief Magistrate of the nation rose 
in its place was painful. Straightening himself to his 
full height, he raised his hand and, looking Calhoun, 
the unfortunate presiding officer, directly in the face, 
with a sharp, keen glance, said with all the emphasis of 
his soul, in that crisp, harsh tone characteristic of him 
when he was intensely moved : 

" OUR FEDERAL UNION ! IT MUST AND SHALL BE PRE- 
SERVED !" 

The effect of this deliverance was appalling. It was 
as if a company of soldiers trotting gayly across an open 
plain towards a forest glade were met by a sudden 
volley from a masked battery. The shock to the com- 
pany was volcanic. Men sat or stood and stared, while 
Jackson, as a sign that the toast was to be quaffed 
standing, lifted his glass higher. The company got to 
its feet in some fashion and with varying emotions, as 
they were for or against nullification, gulped down wine 
and sentiment. Jackson added no other words to his 
ringing phrase. After the toast was drunk he sat down 
triumphantly, conscious that he had said enough. He 
had. 

Calhoun waited until the guests were seated again 
and then endeavored to stem the tide which had settled 
so strongly against him by proposing a counter toast. 
Hill, who was present, thus described the scene : 

" A proclamation of martial law in South Carolina 
and an order to arrest Calhoun where he sat could not 
have come with more blinding, staggering force. All 
hilarity ceased. The President, without adding one 
word in the way of a speech, lifted his glass as a notice 
that the toast was to be quaffed standing. Calhoun 
rose with the rest. His glass so trembled in his hand 

322 



NULLIFICATION 

that a little of the amber fluid trickled down the side. 
Jackson stood silent and impassive. There was no re- 
sponse to the toast. Calhoun waited until all sat down. 
Then he slowly and with hesitating accent offered the 
second volunteer toast: 

" * The Union! Next to our liberty the most dear.' 

" Then, after half a minute's hesitation, and in a 
way that left doubt as to whether he intended it for 
part of the toast or for the preface to a speech, he 
added, — 

" ' May we all remember that it can only be pre- 
served by respecting the rights of the States and by 
distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the 
Union.' " 

Benton, in his " Thirty Years' View," writes : " I was 
a subscriber to the dinner and attended it, and have no 
doubt that the mass of the subscribers acted under the 
same feeling. There was a full assemblage when I 
arrived, and I observed gentlemen standing about in 
clusters in the anterooms, and talking with animation 
on something apparently serious, and which seemed to 
engross their thoughts. I soon discovered what it was 
— that it came from the promulgation of the twenty- 
four regular toasts, which savored of the new doctrine 
of nullification; and which, acting on some previous 
misgivings, began to spread the feeling that the dinner 
was got up to inaugurate that doctrine and to make 
Mr. Jefferson its father. Many persons broke off and 
refused to attend further, but the company was still 
numerous and ardent, as was proved by the number of 
volunteer votes [toasts? — C. T. B.] given, — above 
eighty, — in addition to the twenty-four regulars, and the 
numerous and animated speeches delivered — the report 
of the whole proceedings filling eleven newspaper col- 
umns. When the regular toasts were over the President 
was called upon for a volunteer and gave it — the one 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

which electrified the country and has become historical : 
* Our Federal Union ! It must be preserved !' This 
brief and simple sentiment, receiving emphasis and in- 
terpretation from all the attendant circumstances and 
from the feeling which had been spreading since the 
time of Mr. Webster's speech [in the debate with Hayne. 
— C. T. B.], was received by the public as a proclama- 
tion from the President to announce a plot against the 
Union and to summon the people to its defence. Mr. 
Calhoun gave the next toast, and it did not at all allay 
the suspicions which were crowding every bosom. It 
was this : ' The Union, next to our liberty the most 
dear. May we all remember that it can only be pre- 
served by respecting the rights of the States, and dis- 
tributing equally the benefit and burthen of the Union.' 
This toast touched all the tender parts of the new 
question — liberty before union — only to be preserved — 
State rights — inequality of burthens and benefits. These 
phrases, connecting themselves with Mr. Hayne's speech 
and with proceedings and publications in South Caro- 
lina, unveiled Nullification as a new and distinct 
doctrine in the United States, with Mr. Calhoun for 
its apostle, and a new party in the field of which he 
was the leader. The proceedings of the day put an 
end to all doubt about the justice of Mr. Webster's grand 
peroration, and revealed to the public mind the fact of 
an actual design tending to dissolve the Union. 

" Mr. Jefferson was dead at that time and could not 
defend himself from the use which the new party made 
of his name — endeavoring to make him its founder — and 
putting words in his mouth for that purpose which he 
never spoke. He happened to have written in his life- 
time, and without the least suspicion of its future great 
materiality, the facts in relation to his concern in the 
famous resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, and 
which absolved him from the accusation brought against 

324 



NULLIFICATION 

him since his death. He counselled the resolutions of 
the Virginia General Assembly; and the word nullify, 
or nullification, is not in them, or any equivalent word ; 
he drew the Kentucky resolutions of 1798; and they 
are equally destitute of the same phrases. He had 
nothing to do with the Kentucky resolutions of 1799, in 
which the word 'Nullification,' as the ' rightful remedy,' 
is found, and upon which the South Carolina school 
relied as their main argument, and from which their 
doctrine took its name. . . . These testimonies absolve 
Mr. Jefferson : but the nullifiers killed his birthday cele- 
brations ! Instead of being renewed annually in all 
time, as his sincere disciples then intended, they have 
never been heard of since ! and the memory of a great 
man — benefactor of his species — has lost an honor which 
grateful posterity intended to pay it, and which the 
preservation and dissemination of his principles require 
to be paid." 

Buell says : " The contrast between the terse, quick 
sentiment of General Jackson and the labored deliver- 
ance of Calhoun was almost painful. It was the dif- 
ference between the crack of a rifle, and an old musket 
flashing in the pan. That Calhoun had been taken by 
surprise and thrown completely off his feet was ap- 
parent to all, and to none so painfully as to his friends 
or colleagues. The incident itself was quickly over. 
Other volunteer toasts followed in due succession, but 
there was no more zest. The company — more than a 
hundred at the start — dwindled to thirty within five 
minutes after Calhoun sat down." 

After Calhoun took his seat Jackson deliberately and 
disdainfully rose from his place, walked over to where 
Colonel Benton sat and engaged him in conversation, as 
if the further proceedings had no more interest for 
him or anyone. Once before Jackson had played a 
somewhat similar part and in Tammany Hall. In 1819 

32s 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

he dined with that society. The Democratic party — 
known then as the Repubhcan party ! — in New York 
was then divided into two hostile factions, — it generally 
was and is so divided, — one of which was under the 
leadership of Martin Van Buren, the other of De Witt 
Clinton. Tammany loved Van Buren and hated Clinton. 
Knowing nothing of Van Buren then and greatly ad- 
miring the governor, Jackson deliberately toasted Clin- 
ton, to the great dismay of his entertainers. The Nev/ 
York Evening Post, reporting the scene, says that 
" When the general left the table, which he did directly 
afterwards, his air and manner seemed to say, ' There, 
d — n you, take that !' " And we can imagine that some- 
thing of the same feeling must have been in the bosom 
of the old warrior, which his bearing would naturally 
express, after his explosion at the Jefferson dinner — 
doubtless on occasion Jackson could be very aggra- 
vating in his words and demeanor, especially to his 
enemies. 

Before considering Jackson's further course in the 
more serious nullification troubles I wish to call atten- 
tion to the variant recensions of his famous toast. 
Benton in his " Thirty Years' View" said it was : " Our 
Federal Union: It must be preserved." He was evi- 
dently giving his own recollection of it long after it was 
spoken, and he seems to have been followed by nearly 
everyone who has discussed the episode since he wrote. 
Major Lewis is quoted in Parton as follows : 

" This celebrated toast, ' The Federal Union — It must 
be preserved,' was a cool, deliberate act. The United 
States Telegraph, General Duff Green's paper, published 
a programme of the proceedings for the celebration in 
the issue of the day before, to which the general's atten- 
tion had been drawn by a friend, with the suggestion 
that he had better read it. This he did in the course of 
the evening, and came to the conclusion that the celebra- 

326 



NULLIFICATION 

tion was to be a nullification affair altogether. With this 
impression in his mind he prepared early the next morn- 
ing (the day of the celebration) three toasts, which he 
brought with him when he came into his office, where he 
found Major Donelson and myself reading the morning 
papers. After taking his seat he handed them to me and 
asked me to read them and tell him the one I liked 
best. He handed them to Major Donelson also with 
the same request, who, on reading them, agreed with 
me. He said he preferred that one for himself for the 
reason that it was shorter and more expressive. He 
then put that one into his pocket and threw the others 
into the fire. That is the true history of the toast the 
general gave on that Jefferson birthday celebration in 
1830, which fell among the nullifiers like an exploded 
bomb!" 

Buell, on the contrary, writes it as I have set it down. 
He gives in an interesting note a brief discussion of the 
origin of the phrase and its meaning, and has deliber- 
ately chosen his version on the authority of Mr. F. 
P. Blair, who was undoubtedly familiar with the state- 
ments of both the other authorities quoted and who 
evidently deliberately called attention to the change. I 
quote a portion of Buell's note: 

" The phrase was not extempore. He had deliberated 
over it for days beforehand. He had submitted several 
forms to excellent judges of phraseology. Benton, 
Kendall, Isaac Hill, and Major Lewis were skilled and 
practical writers, masters of dialectics and acute in 
' shades of meaning.' And they all had approved his 
own preference for the form he used. Other phrases, 
framed but discarded, were : ' Our Union ! Let us 
preserve it !' ' The Federal Union ! It must be pre- 
served !' ' The Union of our fathers ! Their sons must 
defend it!' 'The Union of the States! Perfect and 
imperishable.' All these were considered and finally set 

327 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

aside in favor of ' Our Federal Union ! It must and 
shall be preserved !' " 

On the whole I am inclined to agree with Buell in 
his acceptance of Blair's version. This account makes 
the phrase stronger, for one thing, and Jackson was a 
man always to choose the strong course and the strong 
word. On that trip to Boston referred to he was met at 
the city line by a committee and a local orator, who 
greeted him at the triumphal arch which had been 
erected for his entry with an address closing with this 
brief but per fervid doggerel of his own composition : 

" And may his powerful arm long remain nerved 
Who said, ' The Union, it must be preserved.' " 

" Sir," was the laconic reply of the President, in a 
voice equally fervent, " it shall be preserved as long 
as there is a nerve in this arm !" 

The toast at the banquet was the keynote of his whole 
subsequent course. When he was invited to visit 
Charleston on July 4 of the next year, 183 1, in his letter 
of reply he wrote as follows : 

" If he (Jackson) could go, he said, he trusted to find 
in South Carolina ' all men of talent, exalted patriotism, 
and private worth,' however divided they might have 
been before, ' united before the altar of their country 
on the day set apart for the solemn celebration of its in- 
dependence — independence which cannot exist without 
union, and with it is eternal. The disunion sentiments 
ascribed to distinguished citizens of the State were, he 
hoped, if, indeed, they were accurately reported, ' the 
effect of momentary excitement, not deliberate design.' " 

When South Carolina translated her threats into 
action Jackson was equally prompt and determined. To 
an old comrade in arms. General Sam Dale, who had 
been his courier, he spoke freely concerning the sit- 

328 



NULLIFICATION 

uation : " ' General Dale, if this thing goes on, our coun- 
try will be like a bag of meal with both ends open. 
Pick it up in the middle or endwise, and it will run out. 
I must tie the bag and save the country. . . . Sam, you 
have been true to your country, but you have made 
one mistake in life. You are now old and solitary, and 
without a bosom friend or family to comfort you. 
God called mine away. But all I have achieved — fame, 
power, everything — would I exchange if she could be 
restored to me for a moment.' The iron man trembled 
with emotion, and for some time covered his face with 
his hands, and tears dropped on his knees. . , . ' Dale, 
they are trying me here ; you will witness it, but, by the 
God of heaven, I will uphold the laws.' I understood 
him to be referring to nullification again, his mind evi- 
dently having recurred to it, and I expressed the hope 
that things would go right. 

" * They shall go right, sir,' he exclaimed passionately, 
shivering his pipe upon the table. . . ." 

He did more than express himself in conversation. 
He issued a proclamation to South Carolina and the 
United States which is among the most brilliant of our 
state papers. Roosevelt thus characterizes it : " It is 
one of the ablest, as well as one of the most important, 
of all American state papers. It is hard to see how 
any American can read it now without feeling his 
veins thrill." In it Jackson rose to the measure of true 
greatness beyond all dispute. In it he surpassed every 
other act of his life, even the battle of New Orleans. 

People have attempted to belittle Jackson's ability to 
write. They have said that everything of value in his 
letters and papers was written by somebody else. The 
same charge was made against Washington, back of 
whom Hamilton was supposed to be. It was repeated in 
the case of Lincoln with regard to the assistance of 
Seward. The truth is, the more the careers of these 

329 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

men are studied, the more their own personality looms 
large, and whatever is of greatness in their writings is 
now generally admitted to be due to themselves rather 
than to another. It is so of Jackson and Livingston. 
Parton says this about the writing of the paper : 

" He went to his office alone, and began to dash off 
page after page of the memorable proclamation which 
was soon to electrify the country. He wrote with 
that great steel pen of his, and with such rapidity that 
he was obliged to scatter the written pages all over the 
table to let them dry. A gentleman who came in when 
the President had written fifteen or twenty pages ob- 
served that three of them were glistening with wet ink 
at the same moment. The warmth, the glow, the pas- 
sion, the eloquence of that proclamation were produced 
then and there by the President's own hand. 

" To these pages were added many more of notes and 
memoranda which had been accumulating in the Presi- 
dential hat for some weeks, and the whole collection was 
then placed in the hands of Mr. Livingston, the Secre- 
tary of State, who was requested to draw up the procla- 
mation in proper form. Major Lewis writes to me: 
' Mr. Livingston took the papers to his office, and in the 
course of three or four days brought the proclamation 
to the general and left it for his examination. After 
reading it he came into my room and remarked that 
Mr. Livingston had not correctly understood his notes — 
there were portions of the draft, he added, which were 
not in accordance with his views and must be altered. 
He then sent his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and, 
when he came, pointed out to him the passages which 
did not represent his views, and requested him to take 
it back with him and make the alterations he had sug- 
gested. This was done, and the second draft being 
satisfactory, he ordered it to be published. I will add 
that before the proclamation was sent to press to be 

330 



NULLIFICATION 

published I took the hberty of suggesting to the general 
whether it would not be best to leave out that portion 
to which, I was sure, the State-rights party would par- 
ticularly object. He refused. 

" ' Those are my views,' said he with great decision of 
manner, ' and I will not change them nor strike them 

out.' " 

On the other hand, Schouler says : " This proclama- 
tion, making an admirable state paper, was the joint 
composition of the President and his Secretary of State. 
Jackson dashed off the document hastily sheet after 
sheet, with the big steel pen which he used to flourish 
so vigorously, and then handed it to Livingston for a 
more perfected finish. Livingston, who appears to have 
elaborated the constitutional argument, gave the instru- 
ment more dignity of expression. The general style in 
consequence was too chastened to be Jacksonian, and, 
v»^hat was of more moment, the reasoning asserted the 
national or central authority more broadly than Jackson 
himself would have done; but his earnest expression 
gave to the paper, and more especially towards its close, 
a strain of natural eloquence whose pathos, broken by 
ejaculations, is tender and sincere. Livingston in old 
age, with his plain dark clothes, white cravat, well- 
shaven face, peaceful dark eyes, and a general expres- 
sion of courtesy and benevolence, was the image of 
moderation and propriety, while Jackson flashed fire to 
the last." 

Thus Schouler ascribes the larger share of the credit 
to Livingston, although he is unable to deny to Jackson a 
great part in the preparation — to wit, its earnestness, its 
eloquence, its pathos, etc. 

Sumner, pursuing his usual course of disparaging 
Jackson to the very last limit, says unhesitatingly that it 
was written by Livingston. Fiske also says that it was 
written by Livingston, although in an editorial note he 

331 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

calls attention to the statement of Mrs. Elizabeth B. 
Lee, who writes : " My father said to me that the Nulli- 
fication Proclamation as first drafted by General Jackson 
was a far more able paper than the polished substitute 
based on it and written by Mr. Livingston and adopted 
by the President." 

McLaughlin in his life of Cass says : " On Decem- 
ber II appeared his [Jackson's] celebrated proclamation, 
full of earnest, pathetic pleading, strong assertion, and 
profound argument. Verbally it belongs to Livingston, 
but it is filled with the spirit of Jackson. On that hang 
his claims to grateful remembrance." And Roosevelt 
dodges the question of authorship — strange course for 
him — by saying : " Some claim it as being mainly the 
work of Jackson, others as that of Livingston ; it is 
great honor for either to have had a hand in its pro- 
duction." 

The message was enthusiastically received and added 
greatly to Jackson's hold on the people. Writes Schurz 
in his Hfe of Clay: "All over the North, even where 
Jackson had been least popular, the proclamation was 
hailed with unbounded enthusiasm. Meetings were held 
to give voice to the universal feeling. In many South- 
ern States, such as Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and 
even Virginia, it was widely approved as to its object, 
although much exception was taken to the * Federalist' 
character of its doctrines." 

On the other hand, this is the course of the famous 
and eccentric John Randolph, according to Henry 
Adams, his biographer : " When the President's famous 
proclamation, * the ferocious and bloodthirsty proclama- 
tion of our Djezzar,' appeared he was beside himself 
with rage. ' The apathy of our people is most alarming,' 
he wrote. ' If they do not rouse themselves to a sense 
of our condition and put down this wretched old man, 

332 



NULLIFICATION 

the country is irretrievably ruined. The mercenary 
troops who have embarked for Charleston have not dis- 
appointed me. They are working in their vocation, 
poor devils ! / trust that no quarter will he given to 
them: " 

South Carolina and her nullifiers received the procla- 
mation with defiance. The governor issued a counter 
proclamation. Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency 
to occupy a seat in the Senate to be in a position to fight 
the battle there. 

The spirit of the message may be gained from two 
brief excerpts. I do not quote from it at greater length 
because it is included in its entirety in the Appendix: 
" I consider the power to annul a law of the United 
States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the 
existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the 
letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, in- 
consistent with every principle on which it was founded, 
and destructive of the great object for which it was 
formed, . . ." 

" The laws of the United States must be executed. 
I have no discretionary power on the subject — my 
duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. 
Those who told you that you might peacefully prevent 
their execution deceived you. . . . Their object is dis- 
union, and disunion by armed force is treason." 

Will it be thought improper if I here strongly urge 
a careful perusal of the whole proclamation upon my 
readers ? 

Jackson backed up his proclamation by preparations 
to enforce it should South Carolina not recede from 
her recalcitrant position. He sent a naval force — Far- 
ragut being one of the officers thereof — to Charles- 
ton harbor and ordered General Scott to get troops 
ready to enter South Carolina if necessary. Jackson's 
proclamation was dated the twelfth of December, 

333 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

1832. The Ordinance of Nullification was to take 
effect on the first of February, 1833. The President was 
ready for the nullifiers, but at the appointed time South 
Carolina extended the enacting clause, pending hoped- 
for Congressional action; and before anything further 
was done Congress, under the leadership of that Great 
Compromiser, Clay, passed a Tariff Bill tending to 
placate the irate Southerners. Webster was against the 
Compromise, as was Jackson, and it was only passed 
by the aid of Calhoun, who awoke to the difficulty of 
South Carolina's position — and the danger of his own 
— and earnestly sought a practicable way out of the 
dilemma by which the State could in some measure 
" save its face." 

Congress was singularly inconsistent, for it had 
previously, at Jackson's request, passed what was called 
a Force Bill to enable him to apply coercion effectively 
to the State should it persist in its course. The new 
Tariff Bill was an undoubted concession. Many his- 
torians think that Jackson should have vetoed this bill 
and have allowed South Carolina to try the experiment 
of seceding. They have contended that his signing 
of a bill of which he could not entirely approve was an 
act of weakness. It has been said that if the Secession 
experiment had been tried then, when South Carolina 
was alone, it would have been settled for all time and 
the Civil War would have been rendered impossible. 
That is as it may be, of course. No one then foresaw 
the Civil War. Jackson was confronted with the neces- 
sity of signing or crushing South Carolina. He had 
expressed his own views clearly, demonstrated his wil- 
lingness to use force, and there could be no question 
whatever of his ability to coerce South Carolina. He 
could have precipitated a bloody conflict and have over- 
run that State. To his credit, he held his hand. And 
let his action be remembered by those who say that he 

334 




DANIEL WEBSTER 
From a photograph 



NULLIFICATION 

never did hold his hand, that, having power, he invari- 
ably abused it. 

I do not consider his course in any sense a sign of 
weakness — rather of magnanimity. When power re- 
frains from the exercise of force to gain an end, why is 
it that so often it is regarded as weakness ? I have seen 
it stated that Grant did not ask for Lee's sword and that 
he proposed his generous terms at Appomattox because 
he knew that these were the only terms that Lee would 
have accepted, and that Lee's strength induced a weak- 
ness on the part of Grant! Of course, this is an ex- 
treme statement, but I have heard it made. If true, 
its effect would be to take away any magnanimity on the 
part of Grant. The folly of that is easily demonstrated. 
What else could Lee have done then but accept Grant's 
terms, whatever they might have been? He could not 
even have died at the head of his troops then; his 
brave army was so reduced, his enemies were so over- 
whelmingly superior in numbers and equipment, every- 
thing but courage, that they could have seized the last 
remains of the Confederacy with their bare hands! 
Jackson's signature to the compromise tariff act evi- 
denced his strength, not his weakness. 

South Carolina thereafter rescinded its ordinance, 
claiming, as may be imagined, a technical victory, but, 
nevertheless, all the honors of the contest rested with 
Jackson. It was the most conspicuous public service 
that any President rendered between Washington and 
Lincoln. Webster's great speech in reply to Hayne and 
Jackson's great deeds came close togethe-r. It is idle to 
say the one did not influence the other. Perhaps Web- 
ster's speech did more to clarify and unite public 
thought, which had before considered these matters but 
vaguely, than anything which took place, but, as Fiske 
well says in one of his most brilliant periods: 

" After all, it was only Mr. Webster's speech ; it did 

335 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

■not create a precedent for action. It was something 
which a Federal executive might see fit to follow or 
might not. But from the moment when President Jack- 
son said in substance to the nullifiers, ' Gentlemen, if 
you attempt to put your scheme into practice, I shall con- 
sider it an act of war and shall treat it accordingly,' 
from that moment there was no mistaking the signifi- 
cance of the action. It created a precedent which, in the 
hour of supreme danger, even the puzzled, reluctant, 
hesitating Buchanan could not venture to disregard. 
The recollection of it had much to do with setting men's 
faces in the right direction in the early days of 1861 ; 
and those who lived through that doubting, anxious time 
will remember how people's thoughts went back to the 
grim, gaunt figure, long since at peace in the grave, 
and from many and many a mouth was heard the prayer, 
' Oh, for one hour of Andrew Jackson ! ' " 

According to Woodrow Wilson : " The President 
acted as everyone who really knew him knew that he 
would act. Opposition itself would in any case have 
been sufficient incitement to action ; but now the tonic 
of the election was in his veins. The natural straight- 
forward, unhesitating vigor of the man dictated what 
should be done. ' Please give my compliments to my 
friends in your State,' said the imperious old soldier 
to a member of the House from South Carolina who 
asked his commands, ' and say to them that if a single 
drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the 
laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I 
lay my hand on engaged in such treasonable conduct 
upon the first tree I can reach.' No one doubted that 
he meant what he said. Before South. Carolina's con- 
vention met he had instructed the collector of the 
port at Charleston to collect the duties, resistance or no 
resistance, and when the Ordinance of Nullification 
reached him he replied to it with a proclamation whose 

336 



NULLIFICATION 

downright terms no man could misread. For a little 
space he argued, but only for a little. For the most part 
he commanded." 

Jackson always declared that Calhoun was a traitor 
and should have been treated as one. To the clergyman 
who received him into the Presbyterian Church before 
his death, who asked him what he would have done 
with Calhoun and the other nullifiers if they had kept 
on, he replied : " ' Hung them, sir, as high as Haman. 
They should have been a terror to traitors to all time, 
and posterity would have pronounced it the best act of 
my life.' 

" As he said these words he half rose in bed, and all 
the old fire glowed in his old eyes again." 

" In his last sickness he again declared that, in re- 
flecting upon his administration, he chiefly regretted that 
he had not had John C. Calhoun executed for treason. 
' My country,' said the general, ' would have sustained 
me in the act, and his fate would have been a warning 
to traitors in all time to come.' " 

Jackson had a poor opinion of Calhoun. He said that 
he was the only man from South Carolina that he had 
met who was a coward. This was bitterly unjust, for 
the great nullifier never was a coward. In a letter to 
Lewis he thus referred to him: 

" I was aware of the hostility of the influential char- 
acter aluded to [Calhoun]— I sincerely regret the course 
taken by Hamilton & Hayne — The people of South 
Carolina will not, nay cannot sustain such nullifying 
Doctrines. The Carolinians are a patriotic & highminded 
people, and they prize their liberty too high to jeopar- 
dize it, at the shrine of an ambitious Demagogue, 
whether a native of Carolina or of any other country— 
This influential character in this heat, has led Hamilton 
& Hayne astray, and it will, I fear, lead to the injury of 
Hamilton & loose him his election— But the ambitious 
22 337 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Demagogue aluded to, would sacrifice friends & coun- 
try, & move heaven & earth, if he had the power, to 
gratify his unholy ambition — His course will prostrate 
him here as well as everywhere else — Our friend Mr. 
Grundy says he will abandon him unless he can satisfy 
him that he has used his influence to put down this 
nulifying doctrine, which threatens to desolve our happy 



union." 



This alleged ignorant, prejudiced man, as some of his 
biographers would fain have us believe him to be, per- 
haps had a clearer view of the future than anyone else. 
When South Carolina again convulsed the country with 
secession Charles Sumner read in the Senate from a 
letter Jackson wrote on the first of May, 1833, in which 
these striking words occurred : " Take care of your nul- 
lifiers ; you have them among you ; let them meet with 
the indignant frowns of every man who loves his coun- 
try. The tariff, it is now known, was a mere pretext 
. . . and disunion and a Southern Confederacy the real 
object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery 
question.' " 

Buchanan, who was President when next the matter 
came up, was a vastly different man from Jackson. Ac- 
cording to Rhodes, when Stephen A. Douglas arrived 
at Washington in 1857 to attend the sessions of Con- 
gress he called on the President to discuss the matter, — 
i.e., the proposed course of the Southern slaveholding 
States. " The radical difference between the two be- 
came apparent. When Buchanan said he must recom- 
mend the policy of the slave power, Douglas said he 
should denounce him in open Senate. The President 
became excited, rose, and said, ' Mr. Douglas, I desire 
you to remember that no Democrat ever yet differed 
from the administration of his own choice without being 
crushed. Beware of Tallmage and Reeves.' 

" Douglas also rose and in an emphatic manner re- 

338 



NULLIFICATION 

plied, ' Mr. President, I wish you to remembei that 
General Jackson is dead.' " 

Jackson was indeed dead, and Buchanan could not fill 
his shoes. It took Abraham Lincoln to do that, and 
could there be higher praise for Jackson? 



339 



I 



XVI 

WAR ON THE BANK 

The Second Bank of the United States was, as its 
name indicates, the successor, after an interregnum, of 
a similar financial institution founded in 1791 by Alex- 
ander Hamilton, the charter of which had expired in 

181 1. It owed its origin to the disasters of the War of 

1812. On the tenth of April, 1816, it was chartered at 
a time when the financial machinery of the government 
was almost at a standstill and it was considered a neces- 
sity. The government was a stockholder in the bank — 
which also kept the government deposits — to the extent 
of seven millions of dollars. The President of the 
United States appointed five of the twenty-five directors. 
" The government's connection was considered essen- 
tial," says Professor Catterall, " because the bank was 
to be intimately associated with the finances, was to keep 
the public deposits and to transfer the public funds, 
was to pay pensions and to receive the government dues 
from the collectors. The power of appointing directors 
was held to be peculiarly fitting, because only so could 
an upright administration of the bank be assured." 

The opinion of the bank's advocates concerning its 
relation to the government and the functions of the 
government directors is well expressed in the following 
note from Dallas to Calhoun : " The National Bank 
ought not to be considered simply as a commercial bank. 
It will not operate upon the funds of the stockholders 
alone, but much more upon the funds of the nation. Its 
conduct, good or bad, will not affect the corporate credit 
and resources alone, but much more the credit and re- 

340 



WAR ON THE BANK 

sources of the government. In fine, it is not an institu- 
tion created for the purposes of commerce and profit 
alone, but much more for the purposes of national policy, 
as an auxiliary in the exercise of some of the highest 
powers of the government. Under such circumstances 
the public interests cannot be too cautiously guarded. 
. . . The right to inspect the general accounts of the 
bank may be employed to detect the evils of a mal- 
administration ; but an interior agency in the direction 
of its affairs will best serve to prevent them." 

The bank was not established until after seven at- 
tempts during two years of almost constant endeavor. 
Its final charter closely resembled that of the First Bank 
of the United States and the project which Madison had 
vetoed in January, 1815. Sumner admits that the char- 
ter " contained a great many faults which affected its 
career." Benton declared that Calhoun was the de- 
cisive agent in securing the charter, and Calhoun him- 
self admitted it in these words : " I might say with 
truth that the bank owes as much to me as to any other 
individual in the country, and I might even add that, had 
it not been for my efforts, it would not have been 
chartered." 

The bank thus established had a stormy and unequal 
career, in accordance with the policy, ability, and honesty 
of its successive presidents and managers. Yet its ser- 
vices to the nation were undoubtedly very great. Gal- 
latin maintained that the bank was, under the con- 
ditions then prevalent, the only means to insure " a 
sound currency" and " a just performance of contracts." 

When Nicholas Biddle took hold of it in 1823 it had 
been brought out of a period of depression and weakness 
by President Cheves, whose conservatism, however, was 
so great as to defeat the purposes for which it was 
chartered. Under the Biddle regime it at first pros- 
pered exceedingly. According to Catterall : " The 

341 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

period of 1823-28 was one both of conservative and of 
successful banking on the part of the Bank of the United 
States ; the affairs of the institution were carefully 
managed; it extended its dealings considerably; it 
checked the tendencies of the State banks to do un- 
sound business ; it put an end to most of the depreciated 
State-bank currencies; it was fairly popular; its deal- 
ings with the government were on the best footing; 
it gave the nation a better currency than the country 
ever before had ; and it had finally reached the point 
in public opinion where it was considered necessary for 
the uses both of the government and the people." 

According to Adams : " The principal advantages 
derived from the Bank of the United States . . . are, 
therefore, first and principally, securing with certainty 
a uniform and, as far as paper can, a sound currency ; 
secondly, the complete security and great facility it af- 
fords to the government in its fiscal operations ; thirdly, 
the great convenience and benefit accruing to the com- 
munity from its extensive transactions in domestic bills 
of exchange and inland drafts." To these advantages 
must be added the fact that the bank did secure the 
resumption of specie payments — its greatest service. 

Now the bank — of which I am not writing a history, 
be it remembered — had always been a subject of bitter 
and determined opposition. In the first place, it was a 
monopoly. Since it was practically the only monopoly 
of the times, the amount of opposition that is now dis- 
tributed against a great many monopolies was concen- 
trated upon it. Furthermore, it was a monopoly created 
by the government directly and in which the govern- 
ment was financially interested to the extent of its stock 
and its deposits. It was a monopoly over which the 
government exercised a certain control through Con- 
gress and through the government directors. It was 
without doubt a money-making institution. At least, 

342 



WAR ON THE BANK 

that was its intent, and those private individuals who 
bought the stock to the extent of twenty-eight milHon 
dollars did so in the expectation of receiving a proper 
return for their investments, nor can anyone blame them 
for that hope. Of course, if the bank declared any 
dividend on its stock, the government shared in that 
dividend to the extent of the stock it held. Neverthe- 
less, government funds were associated with private 
funds and government facilities were afforded private 
individuals to make money — of course, at the public 
expense, as every other bank makes it, the business 
facilities to the public and the government being con- 
sidered a fair return for the profits received from the 
public. 

The bank, therefore, in Democratic eyes, tended to 
create a privileged class by the aid of the government. 
Although there is little evidence that the bank did exert 
any political influence at that time, the possibilities of 
such a misuse of the opportunities of this official financial 
alliance with the government were so apparent that the 
conclusion that the bank did or would take such a posi- 
tion was inevitable. As Professor Catterall says, in his 
clear, explicit, impartial, and altogether admirable dis- 
cussion, which no student of the financial history of this 
interesting period can afford to overlook : " Democracy, 
devoted to the principle of equality, is opposed to all 
forms of privilege, and to none more than to a monetary 
monopoly. When it is recollected that the Bank of the 
United States was at that time the one great monopoly 
in the country, and that against it were directed all the 
passionate opposition and fear which to-day fall upon 
banks, railroad companies, and trusts, its dangers from 
the rising power of that fierce Democracy which with 
Andrew Jackson swept over the country may be faintly 
measured. The Democracy was positive that the bank 
was a menace to the political and social interests of the 

343 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

United States ; that it made the ' rich richer and the 
poor poorer ;' that it depressed the weak and made ' the 
potent more powerful,' that it accentuated the differ- 
ences of society, creating on the one hand a powerful 
aristocracy, and on the other hand an impotent and 
beggarly proletariat. These opinions were especially 
prevalent in the V/est, where Democracy was most 
powerful. . . . Inextricably linked with the Democratic 
opposition was the ceaseless hostility between rich and 
poor, the envy and hatred of the man who has nothing 
for the man who has much, the ill-will which the debtor 
eternally cherishes for the creditor; all the social argu- 
ments directed against the bank gathered force and pas- 
sion from this feeling and at the same time added to it." 

From the date of the establishment of the bank, then, 
a persistent and implacable resentment, largely due to 
the opposition of the State banks in the newer commu- 
nities, had spread throughout certain sections of the 
country, principally in the West. 

" Thus the earliest Constitution of Indiana, adopted in 

1816, had prohibited the establishment of the branch 
of any bank chartered outside the State. In February, 

18 17, Maryland laid a tax of fifteen thousand dollars 
upon any bank settled in that State under any but a State 
charter, and in December Georgia imposed an annual 
' tax of thirty-one and a fourth cents on every hundred 
dollars of bank stock operated upon or employed within' 
the State, a resolution of the legislature in November, 

1818, declaring that this tax * was only intended to 
apply' to branches of the Bank of the United States. . . . 
The first Constitution of Illinois, framed in August, 
1818, prohibited the existence of any but State banks 
within the State. In December North Carolina laid an 
annual tax of five thousand dollars upon the branch at 
Fayetteville ; in January, 1819, Kentucky imposed the 
largest tax of all, compelling each of the branches to pay 

344 



WAR ON THE BANK 

sixty thousand dollars yearly, and the next month Ohio 
rivalled Kentucky by enacting that the tax in that State 
should be fifty thousand dollars upon each branch. Even 
in Pennsylvania, the supposed stronghold of the bank, 
the legislature warmly discussed the policy of a tax, and 
in 1 8 19 petitioned Congress to take steps to amend the 
Constitution so as to confine national banks to the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. The subject was also debated in the 
legislatures of Virginia and South Carolina, and De 
Witt Clinton, of New York, urged action upon the legis- 
lature of that State;" and resolutions against the con- 
stitutionality of the bank were introduced in the legis- 
lature of South Carolina in 1828. 

As representing the people of the United States, and 
as being thoroughly imbued with the Democratic prin- 
ciples outlined above, Jackson was always opposed to 
the bank. Furthermore, he believed that Congress had 
no power to charter such a bank. In other words, that 
it was unconstitutional. Madison and Gallatin had taken 
the same position when it was first established, but had 
gradually changed their opinions. Perhaps it would be 
fairer to say that, perceiving the benefits that accrued to 
the country from the establishment of the bank, they 
had allowed their opposition to the institution on con- 
stitutional grounds to be quieted in view of the ends 
achieved. 

Thus Peck : " It had performed important functions 
in the finances of the government and the country by 
supplying a sound and uniform currency, facilitating 
exchanges, aiding in the collection and custody of the 
public revenues, and in various operations of the 
Treasury. Hence Gallatin, the ablest financier of the 
period, deemed it of great moment that the bank should 
be continued, particularly in view of the possibility of 
war. Its termination would cause a large export of 
specie to pay the foreign stockholders, and would pro- 

345 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

duce for a long time a serious contraction of the cur- 
rency, besides a deterioration in the character of the 
inevitable issue of the State banks." 

If Jackson was persuaded in his mind that the bank 
was unconstitutional, the services that it had rendered, 
or could render, would not mollify his antagonism in the 
slightest degree. Jackson was not unmindful of the 
services of the bank, however, as will be seen from the 
following letter to Nicholas Biddle, the president 
thereof : " I was very thankful to you for your plan of 
paying off the debt sent to Major Lewis. I thought it 
my duty to submit it to you. I would have no difficulty 
in recommending it to Congress, but I think it right to 
be perfectly frank with you. I do not think that the 
power of Congress extends to charter a bank ought of 
the ten-mile square. ... I have read the opinion of 
John Marshall, who I believe was a great and pure mind 
— and could not agree with him — though if he had said 
that it was necessary for the purposes of the national 
government there ought to be a national bank I should 
have been disposed to concur." 

Catterall says that Jackson's opposition to the bank 
was at bottom " not personal, but based upon constitu- 
tional and social opinions. The bank was in Jackson's 
opinion unconstitutional and, as a powerful privileged 
monopoly, dangerous to society." In other words, he 
antagonized the bank because it was so organized as to 
offer government privileges to a certain favored class 
in which the whole people could not share. " He was 
convinced that some form of a bank was convenient, 
and perhaps necessary for carrying on the financial 
operations of the government, and in this message 
he argued for one with provisions which would not 
conflict with the Constitution as he understood the Con- 
stitution." 

His feelings grew the longer he considered it and the 

346 



WAR ON THE BANK 

harder he fought against it, nor is there the sHghtest 
evidence that subsequent reflection ever changed him. 
He said to Dr. Van Pelt near the close of his adminis- 
tration : " We have the best country and the best insti- 
tutions in the world. No people have so much to be 
grateful for as we ; but, ah, my reverend friend, there 
is one thing I fear will yet sap the foundation of our 
liberty — that monster institution, the Bank of the United 
States." 

Nor was his opposition to the bank a thing of sudden 
growth. Before the break with Clay he had been a 
warm admirer of the brilliant Kentuckian, and he even 
declared that ... it was the perusal of Mr. Clay's 
speech against the recharter of the United States Bank 
in i8ii that convinced him of the unconstitutionality 
and impolicy of a national bank. 

Throughout Jackson's first term the public opposition 
to the bank also increased. Professor Catterall reduced 
it to five causes, " the widespread belief that the bank 
was unconstitutional, the hostility of the States, the 
opposition of State banks, the rise of the Dernocracy, 
and the envy and hatred which the poor always feel for 
the rich." 

He points out that " the support of the bank would 
spring from the realization of its usefulness to the gen- 
eral public — its services in supplying a sound currency, 
in managing the business of the treasury efficiently and 
cheaply, and in furnishing banking accommodations at 
a reasonable rate. But these were virtues hidden from 
the vulgar, and could never be made apparent to them 
because of the abstruseness and involved nature of finan- 
cial discussions. The bank's hold on popular favor was, 
consequently, of the most tenuous kind; as Webster 
said, popular prejudice once aroused was ' more than 
a match for ten banks;' and it was certain that in a 
conflict with a popular President the bank had not the 

347 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

faintest hope of success. That it failed to realize this 
was its error and its misfortune." 

The course of events which precipitated the ruin of 
the bank may be briefly indicated. According to the 
term of the act which created it, the charter of the bank 
had still four years to run when the foes of Jackson in 
Congress, led by Clay, who had changed his opinion, 
passed a bill rechartering it and sent it to the President 
on July 4, 1832, for his veto or approval, just before 
his election for a second term. Some of the supporters 
of the bank felt that it was a mistake to apply for a 
recharter so long before the expiration of the existing 
one, but Nicholas Biddle, president of the bank, thought 
otherwise. Biddle was " a man of eminent tact, concilia- 
tory in temper, versatile, untiringly industrious, quick 
of apprehension and quick to act, strong-willed, and 
tenacious of his own opinions. His prominent fault was 
the possession of an over-sanguine temper. On the 
whole, it would have been difficult to secure a more 
capable man for the position." The officials of the great 
organization were in sympathy with the efforts of their 
president, for the " vast majority of the bank's officers 
and directors were drawn from the ranks of the party 
hostile to Jackson, not because the bank supported this 
party, but because most of the business men were un- 
friendly to Jackson, and the officers and directors had to 
be selected from the ranks of the business men" — thus 
Catterall. 

Biddle, Clay, Webster, and their followers, the advo- 
cates of the bank, fancied that it was so firmly en- 
trenched in the good opinion of the public that if Jack- 
son vetoed the recharter bill he would be defeated in the 
approaching election and that Clay accordingly would 
be elected President. On the other hand, it was argued 
that if Jackson allowed the bill to become a law, one of 
the ends aimed at would be achieved — namely, the per- 

348 



WAR ON THE BANK 

petuation of the bank — and Jackson would be forced to 
stultify all his messages and declarations of opposition, 
which might bring about the end hoped for — his defeat. 
" The opinion was firmly held by the Clay men that 
application at that time would defeat Jackson. If he 
vetoed the bill, he would lose Pennsylvania ; if he failed 
to veto, after his past position, he would lose many 
Southern and Western votes. These were the deter- 
mining political considerations with the National Re- 
publicans, and it was the belief in the influence of the 
former upon Jackson which gave the bank a hope, 
though but a slender one, that the President would yield. 
Yet this very motive for acting must draw down upon 
the bank condemnation, for the act determined by it 
inevitably linked the destiny of the corporation with that 
of a political party, making the question of recharter 
one to be decided by political rather than by business 
considerations." 

The advocates of the bank thought they had the old 
warrior between the two horns of a dilemma. They 
did not understand his character. " When Jackson was 
told that his enemies hoped to force him to assent to 
the bill in fear lest he should lose the vote of Pennsyl- 
vania he said : ' I will prove to them that I will never 
flinch; that they are mistaken when they expected to 
act upon me by such considerations.' " Certainly Jack- 
son acted upon higher grounds than the bank party did 
in this instance. He promptly vetoed the bill on the 
following grounds, as summarized by Sumner : 

" The veto was sent in July loth. The reasons given 
for it were: (i) the bank would have a monopoly for 
which the bonus was no equivalent ; (2) one-fifth of the 
stockholders were foreign; (3) banks were to be al- 
lowed to pay to the Bank of the United States in branch 
drafts, which individuals could not do; (4) the States 
were allowed to tax the stock of the bank owned by their 

349 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

citizens, which would cause the stock to go out of the 
country; (5) the few stockholders here would then 
control it; (6) the charter was unconstitutional; (7) 
the business of the bank would be exempt from taxation ; 
(8) there were strong suspicions of mismanagement in 
the bank; (9) the president could have given a better 
plan; (10) the bank would increase the distinction be- 
tween rich and poor," 

Some passages of the veto message are worth ponder- 
ing; even though they have become trite to-day, they 
were unhackneyed then, and, as Peck justly observes, 
they " probably had greater effect on the popular mind 
than was produced by the merely organizative parts of 
the document." 

" Distinctions in society will always exist under every 
just government. Equality of talents, of education, or 
of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. 
In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the 
fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every 
man is equally entitled to protection by law. But when 
the laws undertake to add to these natural and just 
advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratui- 
ties, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and 
the potent more powerful, the humble members of 
society, the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who have 
neither the time nor the means of securing like favors 
to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice 
of their government. There are no necessary evils in 
government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it 
would confine itself to equal protection, and, as heaven 
does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and 
the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified 
blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide 
and unnecessary departure from these just principles. 

" Nor is our government to be maintained or our 
Union preserved by invasion of the rights and powers 

350 



WAR ON THE BANK 

of the several States. In thus attempting to make our 
general government strong, we make it weak. Its true 
strength consists in leaving individuals and States as 
much as possible to themselves; in making itself felt, 
not in its power, but in its beneficence ; not in its control, 
but in its protection ; not in binding the States more 
closely to the centre, but leaving each to move unob- 
structed in its proper orbit. . . . 

" I have now done my duty to my country. If sus- 
tained by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and 
happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel 
me ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the 
difficulties which surround us, and the dangers which 
threaten our institutions, there is cause for neither dis- 
may nor alarm. For relief and deliverance let us firmly 
rely on that kind Providence which, I am sure, watches 
with peculiar care over the destinies of our Republic, 
and on the intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen. 
Through His abundant goodness, and their patriotic de- 
votion, our liberty and Union will be preserved." 

Again, quoting Catterall upon the result of the veto: 
" In the campaign which immediately followed the 
bank was the paramount issue, and it was soon evident 
that the veto, instead of providing a Congressional ma- 
jority of two-thirds for the bank, had lifted Jackson to 
the summit of popularity, for the election closed with 
his overwhelming triumph, two hundred and nineteen 
electoral votes being cast for him against forty-nine for 
Clay. As Biddle had clearly foreseen, the victorious 
general accepted the result as a distinct approval of his 
veto and a mandate to complete the work so nobly 
begun. He was justified in so regarding it. Biddle had 
committed a monstrous error with his eyes wide open — 
he had applied for a recharter at a moment which pre- 
cipitated the question into politics. The bank war began 
at that point. Thenceforth the bank acted, not as a 

351 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

business corporation should act, but as a bod}^ possess- 
ing political functions and created for political pur- 
poses; it divided the Democratic party into bank and 
anti-bank factions, and drove Jackson to the wall. It 
is no wonder, therefore, that Jackson was infuriated and 
determined to crush the bank. Had he failed to act as 
he did, he would have been inconsistent and lacking in 
moral courage — he would not have been Andrew Jack- 
son." 

Now it is alleged that Jackson's antagonism to the 
bank arose from the opposition of his friends and himself 
to the course pursued by Mason, the president, and the 
directors of the branch bank at Portsmouth, N. H., 
whom Biddle refused to remove and whose conduct he 
justified in spite of the strenuous urging of the New 
Hampshire faction of the Jacksonian party, which 
Mason had antagonized. It has been argued many 
times with great vehemence that the hostility of Jackson 
arose from this incident ; that he was cleverly played 
upon by his friends with this motive for their action, 
and that the whole trem.endous financial struggle arose 
over this trifle. Even Sumner seems to countenance the 
charge, by implication at least. As to that, Catterall has 
this to say: 

" In m^aking public his objections to the bank Jackson 
is not to be censured. His act zvas not the result of the 
Portsmouth quarrel, for it had been determined upon 
before that episode; nor did it spring from the belief 
that the bank luas opposed to him politically, for he had 
been persuaded that this was not the case* He was 
convinced that the bank was unconstitutional and dan- 
gerous to republican institutions, and therefore he only 
fulfilled his duty by speaking out. If criticism is to be 
ofifered at all, it must be directed against his presump- 

* Italics mine. — C. T. B. 
352 



WAR ON THE BANK 

tion in daring to dictate while he was completely igno- 
rant of banking and monetary affairs. Nevertheless, he 
was fair to the bank, willing to hear reason, willing to 
consult the opinions of Lewis, Hamilton, and Nicholas 
Biddle, as well as those of Hill, Taney, and Amos 
Kendall. . . . 

" The war was now waged openly between Jackson 
and Biddle and Clay. Schurz says in his life of Clay 
that he * and his friends were still in good spirits. The 
veto, they thought, would severely shock the sober sense 
of the people, and in effect be Jackson's death warrant. 
Nicholas Biddle wrote to Clay that he was " delighted 
with it." Anti-Jackson newspapers found the veto mes- 
sage " beneath contempt" and advised that it be given 
the widest possible publicity. So it was, and with a 
startling result.' " 

Biddle had some of the qualities of Jackson. " He 
was a man of intense energy, autocratic in temper, and 
possessing supreme confidence in his own judgment. 
It was inevitable that he should rule and not merely 
reign, and the proofs that he did rule are observable 
everywhere." But when it came to a fight he could 
not rule Jackson. He lacked the terrible persistence 
of his great antagonist, and I fear he lacked some of 
the stern, unbending, uncompromising, honesty of the 
older man. In any long-continued struggle between 
the two men the end could be predicted almost with 
certaintv. 

Jackson's overwhelming reelection was naturally re- 
garded by him as a complete popular approval of his 
purpose. The President, convinced that the people were 
Avith him and that he was absolutely right, now resolved, 
as the surest way to ruin the bank, to remove the govern- 
ment deposits from it. Ingham had been succeeded as 
Secretary of the Treasury by Duane. When Jackson 
directed Duane to remove the deposits, conceiving that 
23 353 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the President had no constitutional power to issue such 
a command and that the result would be disastrous to 
the country, Duane refused. Jackson thereupon re- 
quired his resignation and Duane courageously declined 
to tender it, insisting that he must be removed. Jack- 
son, when he made up his mind to do a thing, was 
not to be balked, and he thereupon dismissed Duane on 
September 23, 1833, and appointed in his place Taney, 
who was of a more pliable nature and who agreed with 
him. Taney at once began removing the deposits. 
Lewis asked Jackson what he should do if Congress 
should pass a joint resolution directing the restoration 
of the deposits. 

" ' Why,' said he, ' I would veto it.' 

" * . . . Under such circumstances. General,' I re- 
marked, ' suppose they should be able to carry the reso- 
lution over your veto? What then would you do? If 
you refuse to permit the Secretary to do it, the next 
step on the part of the House would be to move an im- 
peachment, and if Congress have the power to carry 
this resolution through in defiance of the veto power, 
they would be able to prosecute it to a successful termi- 
nation.' 

" ' Under such circumstances,' he replied, elevating 
himself to his full height and assuming a firm and digni- 
fied aspect, ' then, sir, I would resign the Presidency and 
return to the Hermitage.' " 

Duane has recorded in dialogue form the following 
interesting conversation between himself and the Presi- 
dent which throws much light upon the methods and 
characteristics of the general : 

" Secretary. — ' I have at length waited upon you, sir, 
with this letter.' 

" President.— ^h2± is it?' 

" Secretary. — ' It respectfully and finally makes 

354 



WAR ON THE BANK 

known my decision, not to remove the deposits or 
resign.' 

" President. — ' Then you do not mean that we shall 
part as friends?' 

" Secretary. — ' The reverse, sir, is my desire ; but I 
must protect myself.' 

" President. — ' But you said you would retire if we 
could not finally agree.' 

" Secretary. — ' I indiscreetly said so, sir ; but I am 
now compelled to take this course.' 

" President. — ' I have been under an impression 
that you would resign, even as an act of friendship 
to me.' 

" Secretary. — ' Personal wishes, sir, must give way. 
The true question is, which must I observe, my promise 
to execute my duty faithfully, or my agreement to 
retire, when the latter conflicts with the former.' 

" President. — ' I certainly never expected that any 
such difficulties could arise between us, and I think 
you ought still to consider the matter.' 

" Secretary. — ' I have painfully considered it, and 
hope that you will not ask me to make a sacrifice. All 
that you need is a successor, and him you may have at 
once.' 

" President. — ' But I do not wish to dismiss jou. I 
have too much regard for yourself, your family, and 
friends to take that course.' 

" Secretary. — ' Excuse me, sir, you may only do now 
what you said in your letter of the twenty-second of 
July it would be your duty to do if I then said I would 
not thereafter remove the deposits.' 

" President. — ' It would be at any time disagreeable 
to do what might be injurious to you.' 

" Secretary. — ' A resignation, I think, would be more 
injurious. And permit me to say that the publication 
in yesterday's Globe removes all delicacy. A worrn if 
trodden upon will turn. I am assailed in all the leading 
papers of the administration, and if my friend, you will 
not tie up my hands.' 

355 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 



(< 



President. — ' Then, I suppose, you mean to come 
out against me.' 

" Secretary. — ' Nothing is further from my thoughts. 
I barely desire to do what is now my duty, and to 
defend myself if assailed thereafter.' 

" (Here the President expatiated on the late dis- 
closures in relation to the bank, the corruptibility of 
Congress, etc., and at length, taking a paper from his 
drawer, said:) 

" President. — ' You have been all along mistaken in 
your views. Here is a paper that will show you your 
obligations, that the executive must protect you.' 

" Secretary. — ' I will read it, sir, if such is your wish, 
but I cannot anticipate a change of opinion.' 

" President. — ' A secretary, sir, is merely an execu- 
tive agent, a subordinate, and you may say so in self- 
defence.' 

" Secretary. — ' In this particular case Congress con- 
fers a discretionary power, and requires reasons if I 
exercise it. Surely this contemplates responsibility on 
my part.' 

" President. — ' This paper will show you that your 
doubts are wholly groundless.' 

" Secretary. — ' As to the deposits, allow me, sir, to 
say my decision is positive. The only question is as 
to the mode of my retirement.' 

" President. — ' My dear Mr. Duane, we must sepa- 
rate as friends. Far from desiring that you should sus- 
tain any injury, you know I have intended to give you 
the highest appointment now in my gift. You shall 
have the mission to Russia. I would have settled this 
matter before, but for the delay or difficulty' (as I un- 
derstood the President) ' in relation to Mr. Buchanan.' 

" Secretary. — ' I am sincerely thankful to you, sir, for 
your kind disposition, but I beg you to serve me in a 
way that will be truly pleasing. I desire no new station, 
and I barely wish to leave my present one blameless, 
or free from apprehension as to the future. Favor me 
with a written declaration of your desire that I should 

356 



WAR ON THE BANK 

leave office, as I cannot carry out your views as to the 
deposits, and I will take back this letter' (the one I 
had just presented). 

" President. — ' Never have I had anything that has 
given me more mortification than this whole business. 
I had not the smallest notion that we could differ.' 

" Secretary. — ' My principles and opinions, sir, are 
unchanged. We differ only about time. You are for 
acting now ; I am for waiting for Congress.' 

" President. — ' How often have I told you that Con- 
gress cannot act until the deposits are removed.' 

" Secretary. — ' I am unable, sir, to change my opinion 
at will upon that point.' 

" President. — ' You are altogether wrong in your 
opinion, and I thought Mr. Taney would have con- 
vinced you that you are.' 

" Secretary. — ' Mr. Taney, sir, endeavored to prevail 
on me to adopt his views, but failed. As to the de- 
posits, I barely desired a delay of about ten weeks.' 

"President. — 'Not a day — not an hour; recent dis- 
closures banish all doubt, and I do not see how you 
can hesitate.' 

" Secretary. — ' I have often stated my reasons. 
Surely, sir, it is enough that were I to act, I could 
not give reasons satisfactory to myself.' 

" President. — ' My reasons, lately read in the Cabinet, 
will release you from complaint.' 

" Secretary. — ' I am sorry I cannot view the subject 
in the same light.' 

" Our conversation was further extended, under vary- 
ing emotions on both sides, but without any change of 
opinion or decision. At length I retired, leaving the 
letter." 

So much for plucky Duane ! 

The action of the President and his new Financial 
Secretary was a staggering blow to the bank. The re- 
sponse of its friends was prompt and vigorous. The 
Senate refused to confirm Taney as Secretary of the 

357 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Treasury, although, since his appointment had been a 
recess one, the mischief done could not be undone, 
Jackson had his revenge later by appointing Taney 
Chief-Justice of the United States. 

The Senate had once refused to confirm his appoint- 
ment of Isaac Hill to a minor office, but Jackson had 
the satisfaction of seeing Hill elected a member of the 
very body which had rejected him. It had refused to 
confirm Van Buren as minister to England, and Jackson 
had made the rejected nominee the Vice-President of 
the United States and the Senate's presiding officer, and 
subsequently President of the United States. 

The Senate did more than reject Taney — it explicitly 
condemned Jackson. Clay introduced the following 
resolutions : 

" Resolved, ( i ) That the President, in the late ex- 
ecutive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has 
assumed upon himself authority and power not con- 
ferred by the Constitution and the laws, but in deroga- 
tion of both. (2) That the reasons assigned by the 
Secretary for the removal are unsatisfactory and insuffi- 
cient." 

The second resolution was passed immediately and 
the first on March 28. Jackson protested against the 
Senate action, sending to that august body a long and 
able document giving the reasons for his protest, which 
the Senate refused to receive, entertain, or spread on its 
records : the character of this protest may be realized 
from the following excerpts : 

" It is due to the high trust with which I have been 
charged ; to those who may be called to succeed me in 
it ; to the representatives of the people, whose constitu- 
tional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed ; to the 
people of the States ; and to the Constitution they have 
established ; — that I should not permit its provisions to 
be broken down by such an attack on the executive 

358 



WAR ON THE BANK 

department without at least some effort ' to preserve, 
protect, and defend them.' With this view, and for the 
reasons which have been stated, I do hereby solemnly 
protest against the aforementioned proceedings of the 
Senate, as unauthorized by the constitution ; contrary to 
its spirit and to several of its express provisions ; sub- 
versive of that distribution of the powers of government 
which it has ordained and established ; destructive of the 
checks and safeguards by which those powers were in- 
tended, on the one hand, to be controlled, and, on the 
other, to be protected ; and calculated by their immediate 
and collateral effects, by their character and tendency, 
to concentrate in the hands of a body not directly amen- 
able to the people a degree of influence and power 
dangerous to their liberties and fatal to the Constitution 
of their choice. 

" The resolution of the Senate contains an imputation 
upon my private as well as upon my public character; 
and as it must stand forever on their records, I cannot 
close this substitute for that defence which I have not 
been allowed to present in the ordinary form without 
remarking that I have lived in vain if it be necessary to 
enter into a formal vindication of my character and pur- 
poses from such an imputation. In vain do I bear upon 
my person enduring memorials of that contest in which 
American liberty was purchased — in vain have I since 
perilled property, fame, and life in defence of the rights 
and privileges so dearly bought — in vain am I now, 
without a personal aspiration, or the hope of individual 
advantage, encountering responsibilities and dangers 
from which, by mere inactivity in relation to a single 
point, I might have been exempt — if any serious doubts 
can be entertained as to the purity of my purposes and 
motives. If I had been ambitious, I should have sought 
an alliance with that powerful institution which even 
now aspires to no divided empire. If I had been venal, 

359 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

I should have sold myself to its designs. Had I pre- 
ferred personal comfort and official ease to the perform- 
ance of my arduous duty, I should have ceased to 
molest it. In the history of conquerors and usurpers, 
never, in the fire of youth, nor in the vigor of manhood, 
could I find an attraction to lure me from the path of 
duty; and now I shall scarcely find an inducement to 
commence their career of ambition when gray hairs and 
a decaying frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle, 
call me to the contemplation of other worlds, where con- 
querors cease to be honored, and usurpers expiate their 
crimes. 

" The only ambition I can feel is to acquit myself to 
Him to whom I must soon render an account of my 
stewardship ; to serve my fellow-men, and live respected 
and honored in the history of my country. No; the 
ambition which leads me on is an anxious desire and 
a fixed determination to return to the people, unim- 
paired, the sacred trust they have confided to my charge ; 
to heal the wounds of the Constitution and preserve it 
from further violation ; to persuade my countrymen, so 
far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government, 
supported by powerful monopolies and aristocratic es- 
tablishments, that they will find happiness or their liber- 
ties protection, but in a plain system, void of pomp, pro- 
tecting all, and granting favors to none — dispensing its 
blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt, 
save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to pro- 
duce. It is such a government that the genius of our 
people requires — such an one only under which our 
States may remain, for ages to come, united, prosperous, 
and free. If the Almighty Being who has hitherto sus- 
tained and protected me will but vouchsafe to make my 
feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall an- 
ticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in 
the history of my country, and die contented, with the 

360 



WAR ON THE BANK 

belief that I have contributed in some small degree 
to increase the value and prolong the duration of Ameri- 
can liberty. 

" To the end that the resolution of the Senate may not 
be hereafter drawn into precedent, with the authority of 
silent acquiescence on the part of the executive depart- 
ment ; and to the end, also, that my motives and views 
in the executive proceedings denounced in that resolu- 
tion may be known to my fellow-citizens, to the world, 
and to all posterity, I respectfully request that this 
message and protest may be entered at length on the 
journals of the Senate." 

The Senate had exceeded its prerogatives undoubtedly -^ 
in passing the resolutions. If Jackson did anything un- 
constitutional, the proper remedy was an impeachment 
by the House, which would be heard by the Senate. 
Should the House agree with the Senate on the uncon- 
stitutionality of Jackson's action and should it present 
him for trial to the Senate, the Senate would be in the 
position of a judge who passed judgment in the shape 
of a public censure prior to the trial of the case before 
him! In other words, it is never competent for the 
Senate to censure a President, for the Senate, in case 
the President should be brought to trial, is the sole and 
only judge of his actions. Benton, who was Jackson's 
great defender and advocate through all of the contests 
in which he and the Senate became involved, at once 
moved that the resolution be expunged. 

At that time Jackson's party in the Senate was in 
the minority and nothing could be done, but with every 
passing year the Jacksonians grew in strength, and 
finally, just before the close of his last term of office, 
after a spirited and acrimonious debate, amid scenes of 
the most intensely dramatic nature, Benton succeeded in 
having the offending resolution expunged. 

" The administration had a majority in the Senate in 

361 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

1836, but Benton says that a caucus was held on ex- 
punging. The resolution, which was passed by a vote of 
twenty-four to nineteen, directed that black lines should 
be drawn around the record on the journal of the 
Senate, and the words ' Expunged by order of the 
Senate, this sixteenth day of January, 1837,' should be 
written across it.* It was a real personal victory for 
Jackson. The Senate had risen up to condemn him for 
something which he had seen fit to do, and he had suc- 
cessfully resented and silenced its reproof. It gratified 
him more than any other incident in the latter part of 
his life. . . . The day after the resolution was expunged 
leave was refused in the House to bring in a resolution 
that it was unconstitutional to expunge any part of any 
record of either house." Yet there are other instances 
of expunging on record. 

So delighted was Jackson that he gave a banquet to 
those who had voted for the expunging resolution, and 
although he was ill at the time and unable to be present, 
he managed to welcome the guests and then left Benton 
in the chair. It was his last, and perhaps his greatest, 
triumph over Henry Clay. 

The Bank of the United States, unable to obtain a 
recharter, and having been ruthlessly severed from any 
connection with the government, was chartered as a 
State bank of Pennsylvania and dragged on a miserable 
existence for a short time, in which everything that was 
vicious and bad in banking was finally exhibited in its 
conduct. At the time Jackson first attacked it, as has 
been said, it was probably not guilty of political manipu- 
lation. When it fought for its life against the redoubt- 
able assaults of the President the same innocence of the 



* The resolution was passed at 3.30 a.m. on January 17th, 
after a continuous session of great length, which was, I pre- 
sume, considered as a part of the session of the previous day, 
January i6th. — C. T. B. 

362 



WAR ON THE BANK 

charge could not be maintained, naturally. Jackson not 
only ruined the bank, but he crushed Biddle, who died 
of a broken heart in comparative disgrace, which he 
scarcely merited. 

Jackson, although he was strong for hard money and 
specie payments, had no adequate substitute to propose j 
for the institution he had destroyed. He had no finan- { 
cial system worthy of the name to substitute for that of i 
the bank. He could destroy, but he could not create, and | 
the subsequent financial crisis through which the United i 
States passed in Van Buren's term must certainly be 
laid at his door. According to Woodrow Wilson : 

" The President had a very sturdy and imperative 
sense of right and honesty in all money matters. He 
believed gold and silver to be ' the true constitutional 
currency' of the country, he said. He demanded of the 
pet banks that they should keep specie enough to cover 
at least a third of their circulation, and that they should 
issue no notes of a lower value than twenty dollars. 
He increased the output of the mints and tried by every 
means to force coin into circulation. He had no idea of 
letting the country try again the fatal experiment of an 
irredeemable paper currency if he could prevent it ; and 
when he saw the fever rising in spite of him he tried a 
remedy as drastic and wilful as his destruction of the 
Bank of the United States. Speculation and hopeful 
enterprise had had an extraordinary effect upon the sale 
of the public lands. In 1834 the government had re- 
ceived less than five millions from that source. In 1835 
the sum sprang up to more than fourteen millions, and 
in 1836 to nearly twenty-five millions ; and the money 
poured in, not, of course, in gold and silver, but in the 
depreciated currency of innumerable unknown banks. 
The Treasury was forbidden by statute to receive any 
notes but those of specie-paying banks ; but things had 
■ by this time already come to such a pass that no man 

Z^2, 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

could certainly or safely distinguish the banks which 
really kept a specie reserve from those which only pre- 
tended to do so. On July ii, 1836, accordingly, by the 
President's command a circular issued from the Treas- 
ury directing the land agents of the government to 
accept nothing but gold or silver in payment for public 
lands. Again, as in the case of the bank, the President's 
advisers drew back and disapproved ; but again he 
assumed the full authority and responsibility of his 
sovereign office, and delivered his blow without hesita- 
tion or misgiving. 

" The effect was to shatter the whole fabric of credit. 
But the consequences did not disclose themselves at 
once. General Jackson had retired from public office 
and Mr. Van Buren had succeeded him in the Presi- 
dency (March, 1837) before the inevitable day of dis- 
aster and collapse had visibly come." 

In his war against the bank Jackson acted certainly 
with courage and equally, I believe, from a sincere de- 
sire to promote the public weal. He did not believe in 
the existence of such a bank, and people to-day do not 
believe in it. As Parton says : " With regard to the 
war upon the Bank of the United States, every one is 
glad the bank was destroyed, but no one can admire the 
manner or the spirit in which the war was waged. At 
the same time, it is not clear that any other kind of 
warfare could have been successful against an institution 
so rooted in the country as that was." 

Other methods, however, might have been devised 
and the end achieved by more conservative means. 
Schouler says : " Let us freely grant that our warrior- 
magistrate believed in his heart the worst of his intem- 
perate accusations ; that his zeal to exterminate the 
bank was patriotic; that he drew to himself all the 
functions of sovereignty, while Congress was scattered, 
for dealing this unexpected blow so as to do his people 

364 



WAR ON THE BANK 

a benefit, and not for wreaking a personal vengeance; 
that he honestly thought that unless he struck at once 
he would be borne down by the friends bought by the 
unrighteous mammon. Let us concede, too, against 
some powerful reasoning to the contrary, that the real 
discretion in changing the deposits at this time rested 
rightfully under the law in the President himself, and 
not in the Secretary, his appointee; for turn them as 
we may, all the executive departments are branches of 
one vine, and who could have blamed President Jackson 
for removing one Secretary and appointing another to 
execute his purpose had the bank been actually in- 
solvent and the deposits at that moment in jeopardy?" 

Yet the bank was not insolvent at the time nor were 
the deposits in jeopardy. As Benton said: "Certainly 
the great business community, with few exceptions, 
comprising wealth, ability, and education, went for the 
bank, and the masses for General Jackson." Well, the 
masses and Jackson — or should I reverse the order? — 
had their way. 

In conclusion, as we have often found in the case of 
Jackson, I think he was wrong in his means of accom- 
plishing the right end. He saw before him something 
which he greatly desired to accomplish for the public 
good, and he overrode everybody and everything in 
order to bring it about. He dealt with it as he would 
deal with an enemy in a military campaign. He gen- 
erally did deal with antagonists or opposition of any 
kind in that manner ; and he did not compass his great 
desire or bring about his ends by the methods of a 
statesman, to which title he could lay much claun, or 
the ways of a financier, which no stretch of admiration 
could characterize him as being. 



36s 



XVII 

RELIGION — LAST DAYS 

General Jackson was a thoroughly religious man 
during the greater part of his life, and during the period 
that elapsed between his Presidency and his death he 
became a communicant member of the Presbyterian 
Church. This was a step for which he had long been 
prepared, but which he had delayed taking lest un- 
worthy motives, as for political effect, should be ascribed 
to him if he took it while in office or a candidate for 
office. Now, when I say he was a religious man I do 
not mean that his religion was at first of the active 
personal sort; on the contrary, it was originally inter- 
mixed with worldliness to an excessive degree. 

Parton relates the following anecdote: 

" After his wife had joined the church the general, 
in deference to her wishes, was accustomed to ask a 
blessing before meals. The company had sat down at 
the table one day when the general was telling a warlike 
story with great animation, interlarding his discourse, 
as was then his custom, with a profusion of expletives 
most heterodox and profane. In the full tide of his 
narration the lady of the house interrupted her lord, 
'Mr. Jackson, will you ask a blessing?' Mr. Jackson 
stopped short in the midst of one of his most soldier- 
like sentences, performed the duty required of him, and 
then instantly resumed his narrative in the same tone 
and language as before." 

In the beginning his religion was like that blessing, 
interspersed with much that was heterodox and profane. 
But he was never a mocker or a Laodicean. As he 

366 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

grew older he grew more reverent inwardly — he had 
always been reverent outwardly. To Dr. Shaw, a friend 
of his old age, he stated that " for thirty-five years 
before my election to the Presidency I read at least 
three chapters of the Bible every day, which is far more 
than any of my detractors could say with truth of their 
own conduct in this respect." It is also more than most 
of his biographers, including his present-day detractors, 
could say with truth ! 

I said he was outwardly reverent. This is the gen- 
eral's own opinion of the quality of reverence, which, 
like that of mercy, is not strained by the iteration of too 
frequent usage, as expressed to Mr. Blair and recorded 
by Buell. Aaron Burr was under discussion, and Jack- 
son declared that " ' Burr came within one trait of the 
most exalted greatness.' 

" ' What was that ?' asked Mr. Blair. 

" ' Reverence, sir, reverence,' replied the general 
solemnly. ' I don't care how smart or how highly edu- 
cated or how widely experienced a man may be in this 
world's affairs, unless he reveres something and be- 
lieves in somebody beyond his own self he will fall short 
somewhere. That was the trouble with Burr. I saw 
it when I first met him in Philadelphia in 1796. I was 
a raw backwoodsman, but had sense enough to see 
through men a good deal smarter than I could ever 
hope to be myself. I liked him and for many things 
admired him. But I never could get over that one 
impression that he was irreverent. And that was what 
stood in his way. I remember reading away back 
yonder how he said, when he read Hamilton's farewell 
letter, that " it sounded like the confession of a penitent 
monk." I thought then, Blair, that if I had killed a man 
as he had killed Hamilton, even if I had thought such 
a thing, I would leave it for somebody else to say. In 
the inner circles of my friends I have once or twice 

367 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

spoken of Mr. Dickinson's character as I knew it to be, 
but never publicly or for the world to hear or read. 
Yes, Blair, a man must revere some thing or, no matter 
how smart or brave he is, he will die as Burr died in 
New York the other day, friendless and alone." 

I do not think anyone could better explain the reason 
for the utter failure of Burr's career than Jackson did, 
for Burr reverenced nothing, he was not even true to 
himself. Jackson was always careful to observe out- 
ward religious duties, as going to church. " Without 
ever being a ' Sabbatarian,' he was an observer of the 
day of rest and a church-goer. On Sunday mornings 
he would say to his guests, ' Gentlemen, do what you 
please in my house ; / am going to church.' " 

Of course, his chief reason for church-going at first 
may have been to please his wife — many a man goes to 
church for that and is the better for it too — but he 
liked to hear sermons and did not object if sometimes 
they were directed against himself. In the reminis- 
cences of Peter Cartwright, who was a famous back- 
woods Methodist preacher of Jackson's earlier days, 
he tells how he was once preaching in a Presbyterian 
church. 

When he got started in his sermon, with the preacher 
in charge sitting behind him. General Jackson came in 
at the door — the church crowded and the aisles packed 
— and stopped for a moment, not seeing his way. He 
says at that time the preacher in charge touched his 
coat-tail and said to him in a whisper, " General Jack- 
son has just come in." He says at that time he felt 
somewhat indignant and blabbed out, " What is that 
if General Jackson has come in? In the eyes of God 
he is no bigger than any other man ; and I tell General 
Jackson now, if he don't repent and get forgiveness 
for his sins, God Almighty will damn him just as quick 
as he would a Guinea nigger." 

368 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

Far from being offended, Jackson enjoyed the 
preacher's frankness and spoke thus to him : 

Mr. Cartwright, you are a man after my own 
heart. I am very much surprised at Mr. Mac, to think 
he would suppose that I would be offended at you. 
No, sir ; I told him that I highly approved of your in- 
dependence; that a minister of Jesus Christ ought to 
love everybody and fear no mortal man. I told Mr. 
Mac that if I had a few thousand such independent, 
fearless officers as you were, and a well-drilled army, 
I could take old England !' " 

" General Jackson was certainly a very extraordinary 
man," continues the worthy preacher. " He was, no 
doubt, in his prime of life a very wicked man, but he 
always showed a great respect for the Christian religion 
and the feelings of religious people, especially ministers 
of the gospel. I will here relate a little incident that 
shows his respect for religion. 

" I had preached one Sabbath near the Hermitage, 
and, in company with several gentlemen and ladies, 
went, by special invitation, to dine with the general. 
Among this company there was a young sprig of a 
lawyer from Nashville of very ordinary intellect, and 
he was trying hard to make an infidel of himself. As I 
was the only preacher present, this young lawyer kept 
pushing his conversation on me in order to get into 
an argument. I tried to evade an argument, in the 
first place considering it a breach of good manners to 
interrupt the social conversation of the company ; in 
the second place I plainly saw that his head was much 
softer than his heart, and that there were no laurels to 
be won by vanquishing or demolishing such a com- 
batant, and I persisted in evading an argument. This 
seemed to inspire the young man with more confidence 
in himself, for my evasiveness he construed into fear. 
I saw General Jackson's eye strike fire as he sat by 
24 369 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

and heard the thrusts he made at the Christian reHgion. 
At length the young lawyer asked me this question, — 

" ' Mr. Cartwright, do you really believe there is any 
such place as hell as a place of torment?' 

" I answered promptly, ' Yes, I do.' 

" To which he responded, ' Well, I thank God I have 
too much good sense to believe any such thing!' 

" I was pondering in my own mind whether I would 
answer him or not, when General Jackson for the first 
time broke into the conversation and, directing his 
words to the young man, said with great earnestness, — 

" ' Well, sir, I thank God that there is such a place 
of torment as hell !' 

" This sudden answer, made with great earnestness, 
seemed to astonish the youngster, and he exclaimed, — 

" ' Why, General Jackson, what do you want with 
such a place of torment as hell ?' 

" To which the general replied as quick as lightning, — 

" ' To put such d — d rascals as you are in, that oppose 
and vilify the Christian religion.' 

" I tell you, this was a poser. The young lawyer 
was struck dumb, and presently was found missing." 

Parson Craighead, another famous frontier preacher, 
was once accused of heresy. Says Parton : " At nine 
o'clock in the evening the parson rose to reply to the 
accusation. His address was, perhaps, the longest, and, 
to a man like Jackson, certainly the least interesting 
ever delivered in Tennessee. After the first hour the 
large congregation began so rapidly to melt away that 
by eleven o'clock there were not fifty persons in the 
church. The eager parson, however, kept sturdily on 
stating his points and arranging his texts, regardless of 
the empty pews; for there sat General Jackson in 
the middle of the church bolt upright, with his eyes 
fixed intently upon the speaker. Midnight arrived. 
There were then just four persons in the church — the 

370 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

party from the Hermitage and the lady to whom the 
reader is indebted for this story. The general still 
listened, with a look of such rapt attention that he 
seemed to produce upon the speaker the effect of a 
large assembly. ' I was dying to go,' said my in- 
formant, ' but I was ashamed to be outdone by General 
Jackson, who was more fit to be in bed than anyone 
who had been present, and so I resolved to stay as long 
as he did, if I dropped asleep upon the floor.' The 
parson wound up his discourse just as the clock struck 
one. General Jackson went up to him as he descended 
the pulpit and congratulated him heartily upon his 
triumphant vindication. 

" ' The general would have sat till daylight,' said the 
lady ; ' I saw it in his eye.' " 

Later in his career to a certain foreign minister who 
sought the President's advice as to the appointment of 
a young man of Jackson's acquaintance, an employe of 
the State Department, as his secretary, the President 
remarked : " I advise you, sir, not to take the man. 
He is not a good judge of preaching." The astonished 
minister observed that the objection needed explana- 
tion. Perhaps he failed to see the connection. " I am 
able to give it," said the general promptly, and he thus 
continued : " On last Sabbath morning I attended 
divine service in the Methodist Episcopal church in 
this city. There I listened to a soul-inspiring sermon 
by Professor Durbin, of Carlisle, one of the ablest 
pulpit orators in America. Seated in a pew near me 
I observed this identical young man, apparently an 
attentive listener. On the day following he came into 
this chamber on business, when I had the curiosity to 
ask his opinion of the sermon and the preacher. And 
what think you, sir? The young upstart, with con- 
summate assurance, pronounced that sermon all froth 
and Professor Durbin a humbug ! I took the liberty of 

371 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

saying to him, ' My young man, you are a humbug 
yourself, and don't know it !' And now," continued the 
old man solemnly, " rest assured, dear sir, that a man 
who is not a better judge of preaching than that is unfit 
to be your companion. And besides," he added 
shrewdly, " if he were the prodigy the Secretary of 
State represents him to be, he would be less anxious 
to confer his services upon you — he would rather be 
anxious to retain them himself." 

And to Captain Donelson he wrote during his first 
term in the Presidency: 



" My dear wife had your future state much at heart. She 
often spoke to me on this interesting subject in the dead hours 
of the night, and has shed many tears on the occasion. Your 
reflections upon the sincere interest your dear sister took in 
3'our future happiness are such as sound reason dictates. Yes, 
my friend, it is time that you should withdraw from the tur- 
moils of this world, and prepare for another and better. You 
have well provided for your household. You have educated 
your children, and furnished them with an outfit into life 
sufficient, with good management and economy, to build an 
independence upon. You have sufficient around you to make 
you and your old lady independent and comfortable during 
life; and, when gone hence, perhaps as much as will be pru- 
dently managed ; and if it should be imprudently managed, 
then it will be a curse rather than a blessing to your children. I 
therefore join in the sentiments of my deceased and beloved 
wife, in admonishing you to withdraw from the busy scenes of 
this world, and put your house in order for the next, by laying 
hold of ' the one thing needful.' Go, read the Scriptures. The 
joyful promises it contains will be a balsam to all your trou- 
bles, and create for you a heaven here on earth, a consolation 
to your troubled mind that is not to be found in the hurry and 
bustle of this world." 



I venture to insert here a charming letter he wrote 
during the last year of his administration to Mrs. Emily 
Donelson, the wife of his secretary: 

372 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 



"Washington, November 27, 1836. 

" My dear Emily : Your kind and acceptable letter of the 
eleventh instant was received on the twenty-third, whilst I 
was confined to my bed by a severe hemorrhage from the 
lungs, which threatened a speedy end to my existence, but, with 
sincere thanks to a king Providence, who holds our existence 
here in the hollow of His hand, I have so far recovered as to 
be able to write you this letter, to acknowledge the receipt of 
yours, and to offer to Him v/ho made us my most sincere and 
hearty thanks for His kindness to you in restoring you to 
health again, and with my prayers for your perfect recovery, 
and that you may be long spared to superintend the bringing 
up and educating of your dear children, and be a comfort to 
your dear husband, who has a great solicitude about you, and 
great anxiety to speedily return to you; but my sudden attack 
has detained him. 

" I rejoice, my dear Emily, to find your spirits are good, and 
that you are able to take exercise daily. This is necessary to 
your perfect recovery; and trust in a kind Providence that in 
time you will be completely restored to your health. You are 
young, and with care and good treatment will outgrow your 
disease, but you must be careful not to take cold this winter, 
and as soon as Doctor Hunt's prescription reaches you, I 
would advise you to pursue it. The digitalis, I fear, Is too 
exciting to the pulse. 

" The doctor tells me I lost from the lungs, and by the 
lancet and cupping, upwards of sixty ounces of blood, which 
stopped the hemorrhage without the aid of that potent, but 
pernicious, remedy to the stomach, sugar of lead. I am now 
mending as fast as I could expect, and if I can keep clear of 
taking cold this winter, I hope to be spared, and to return to 
the Hermitage in the spring, and again have the pleasure of 
seeing you and your dear children, to whom present me affec- 
tionately. 

" My dear Emily, the chastisement of our Maker we ought 
to receive as a rebuke from Him, and thank Him for the 
mildness of it — which was to bring to our view, and that it 
may be always before us, that we are mere^ tenants at will here. 
And we ought to live daily so as to be prepared to die, for we 
know not when we may be called home. Then let us receive 
our chastisements as blessings from God; and let us so live 
that we may say with the sacred poet: 

373 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

"'What though the Father's rod 
Drop a chastening stroke, 
Yet, lest it wound their souls too deep, 
Its fury shall be broke! 

" ' Deal gently, Lord, with those 
Whose faith and pious fear, 
Whose hope, and love, and every grace, 
Proclaim their hearts sincere.' 

" I must close with my blessing to you and the children. 
May God bless you and all. Emily, farewell. Affectionately, 

" Andrew Jackson." 

In his retirement his thoughts turned more and more 
to religion. Parton thus tells the story of the way in 
which he finally took the step in the following exquisite 
language : 

" It was about the year 1839 that Dr. Edgar was first 
invited to the Hermitage for the purpose of administer- 
ing religious advice to its inmates. Mrs. Jackson, the 
amiable and estimable wife of the general's son, was 
sick in body and troubled in mind. General Jackson 
invited his reverend friend to call and see her, and en- 
deavor to clear her mind of the cloud of perplexity and 
apprehension which hung over it. In the course of her 
conversation with the doctor she chanced to say, in the 
general's hearing, that she felt herself to be ' a great 
sinner.' 

" ' You a sinner ?' interposed the general ; * why, you 
are all purity and goodness ! Join Dr. Edgar's church, 
by all means.' 

" This remark was considered by the clergyman as 
proof that, at that time. General Jackson was * blind' as 
to the nature of true religion. Soon after this inter- 
view Mrs. Jackson's anxiety was relieved, and she 
waited to join the church only for a suitable oppor- 
tunity. 

" Ere long a ' protracted meeting' was held in the 
little church on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar con- 

374 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

ducted the exercises, and the family at the Hermitage 
were constant in their attendance. The last day of the 
meeting arrived, which was also the last day of the 
week. General Jackson sat in his accustomed seat and 
Dr. Edgar preached. The subject of the sermon was 
the interposition of Providence in the affairs of men, 
a subject congenial with the habitual tone of General 
Jackson's mind. The preacher spoke in detail of the 
perils which beset the life of man, and how often he is 
preserved from sickness and sudden death. Seeing 
General Jackson listening with rapt attention to his dis- 
course, the eloquent preacher sketched the career of a 
man who, in addition to the ordinary dangers of human 
life, had encountered those of the wilderness, of war, 
and of keen political conflict; who had escaped the 
tomahawk of the savage, the attack of his country's 
enemies, the privations and fatigues of border warfare, 
and the aim of the assassin. ' How is it,' exclaimed 
the preacher, ' that a man endowed with reason and 
gifted with intelligence can pass through such scenes 
as these unharmed, and not see the hand of God in his 
deliverance ?' While enlarging on this theme Dr. Edgar 
saw that his words were sinking deep into the general's 
heart, and he spoke with unusual animation and im- 
pressiveness. 

" The service ended, General Jackson got into his car- 
riage and was riding homeward. He was overtaken 
by Dr. Edgar on horseback. He hailed the doctor, 
and said he wished to speak with him. Both having 
alighted, the general led the clergyman a little way into 
the grove. 

" ' Doctor,' said the general, ' I want you to come 
home with me to-night.' 

" * I cannot to-night,' was the reply ; ' I am engaged 
elsewhere.' 

" ' Doctor,' repeated the general, ' I want you to come 
home with me to-night.' 

" Dr. Edgar said that he had promised to visit that 
evening a sick lady, and he felt bound to keep his 
promise. General Jackson, as though he had not heard 

375 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the reply, said a third time, and more pleadingly than 
before : 

" ' Doctor, I want you to come home with me to- 
night.' 

" ' General Jackson,' said the clergyman, ' my word 
is pledged; I cannot break it; but I will be at the 
Hermitage to-morrow morning very early.' 

" The anxious man was obliged to be contented with 
this arrangement, and went home alone. He retired 
to his apartment. He passed the evening and the greater 
part of the night in meditation, in reading, in conversa- 
tion with his beloved daughter, in prayers. He was 
sorely distressed. Late at night, when his daughter left 
him, he was still agitated and sorrowful. What 
thoughts passed through his mind as he paced his room 
in the silence of the night, of ivhat sins he repented, 
and what actions of his life he wished he had not done, 
no one knows, or will ever know. . . . 

" As the day was breaking, light seemed to dawn 
upon his troubled soul, and a great peace fell upon 
him. 

" To Dr. Edgar, who came to see him soon after 
sunrise. General Jackson told the joyful history of the 
night, and expressed a desire to be admitted into the 
church with his daughter that very morning. The 
usual questions respecting doctrine and experience were 
satisfactorily answered by the candidate. Then there 
was a pause in the conversation. The clergyman said 
at length : 

" ' General, there is one more question which it is my 
duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies ?' 

" The question was evidently unexpected, and the 
candidate was silent for awhile. 

" ' My political enemies,' said he, ' I can freely for- 
give ; but as for those who abused me when I was 
serving my country in the field, and those who attacked 
me for serving my country — Doctor, that is a different 
case.' 

" The doctor assured him that it was not. Chris- 
tianity, he said, forbade the indulgence of enmity abso- 

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RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

lutely and in all cases. No man could be received into 
a Christian church who did not cast out of his heart 
every feeling of that nature. It was a condition that 
was fundamental and indispensable. 

" After a considerable pause the candidate said that 
he thought he could forgive all who had injured him, 
even those who had assailed him for v/hat he had done 
for his country in the field. The clergyman then con- 
sented to his sharing in the solemn ceremonial of the 
morning, and left the room to communicate the glad 
tidings to Mrs. Jackson. She hastened to the general's 
apartment. They rushed with tears into each other's 
arms, and remained long in a fond and silent embrace. 

" The Hermitage church was crowded to the utmost 
of its small capacity ; the very windows were darkened 
with the eager faces of the servants. After the usual 
services, the general rose to make the required public 
declaration of his concurrence with the doctrines, and 
his resolve to obey the precepts, of the church. He 
leaned heavily upon his stick with both hands ; tears 
rolled down his cheeks. His daughter, the fair, young 
matron, stood beside him. Amid a silence the most 
profound, the general answered the questions proposed 
to him. When he was formally pronounced a member 
of the church, and the clergyman was about to continue 
the services, the long-restrained feelings of the con- 
gregation burst forth in sobs and exclamations, which 
compelled him to pause for several minutes. The cler- 
gyman himself was speechless with emotion and aban- 
doned himself to the exaltation of the hour. A familiar 
hymn was raised, in which the entire assembly, both 
within and without the church, joined with an ecstatic 
fervor which at once expressed and relieved their 
feelings. 

" From this time to the end of his life General Jack- 
son spent most of his leisure hours in reading the Bible, 
Biblical commentaries, and the hymn-book, which last 
he always pronounced in the old-fashioned way, hime 
book. The work known as ' Scott's Bible' was his chief 
delight; he read it through twice before he died. 

377 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Nightly he read prayers in the presence of his family 
and household servants. I say read prayers, for so I 
was informed by those who often heard him do it. But 
there has been published a description of the family 
worship at the Hermitage which represents the general 
as delivering an extempore prayer. 

" The Hermitage church, after the death of Mrs. 
Jackson and the general's removal to Washington, had 
not been able to maintain itself; but the event which 
we have just related caused it to be reorganized. At 
one of the first meetings of the resurrected church Gen- 
eral Jackson was nominated a ' ruling elder.' 

" ' No,' said he, ' the Bible says, " Be not hasty in 
laying on of hands." I am too young in the church 
for such an office. My countrymen have given me high 
honors, but I should esteem the office of ruling elder 
in the Church of Christ a far higher honor than any I 

have ever received. I propose Brother arid 

Brother ' (two aged neighbors)." 

Jackson had but little time left in which to show the 
strength and sincerity of his conviction and his devotion 
to the church, but there is no doubt as to the depth 
of them nor of the comfort and peace that came to the 
battle-scarred, storm-racked old man in those last years 
of his tempestuous life. They were not altogether 
happy years from a material standpoint. Van Buren 
was beaten in the political field, the speculations of 
Andrew Jackson, Jr., his adopted son, turned out badly 
at home, and in order to assist him Jackson was forced 
to borrow money, which he cheerfully did. In view of 
the straits to which the younger Andrew had been 
reduced, Jackson made a new and final will bequeathing 
everything to him. Lewis thus describes an interview 
in which the question of the will was discussed shortly 
after it was made: 

" It was a beautiful morning in June. ' Come, 
Major,' said the general, ' it is a pleasant day, let us 

378 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

take a stroll.' He seemed very weak, scarcely able to 
walk, and had much difficulty in breathing. After 
walking a short distance Major Lewis advised him to 
return, but he would not. A second and a third time 
the major entreated him to go no further. ' No, Major,' 
he said, ' I set out to show you my cotton field, and I 
will go.' They reached the field at length and sat down 
upon a stump to admire its flourishing appearance. 
Suddenly changing the subject, the general told his 
companion that he had made a new will, leaving his 
whole estate unconditionally to his son. Major Lewis 
ventured to remonstrate, and advised that a part of the 
property should be settled upon Mrs. Jackson and her 
children, enough to secure them against want in case 
his son's speculations should continue to be unsuc- 
cessful. 

" ' No,' said the general after a long pause, ' that 
would show a want of confidence. If she' pointing to 
the tomb in the garden, ' were alive, she would wish 
him to have it all, and to me her wish Is law.' " 

The little episode is interesting as showing the gen- 
eral's indomitable resolution to do what he set about 
to do at whatsoever cost to himself, and there is a 
further evidence in those last days, when his wife had 
been dead so many years, of the depth and persistence 
of his affection for her. 

On May 24, 1845, the last Sunday but two of his 
life, " General Jackson partook of the communion in 
the presence of his family. He spoke much of the 
consolation of religion, and declared that he was ready 
for the final summons. 'Death,' said he after the 
ceremony was over, ' has no terrors for me. When I 
have suffered sufficiently, the Lord will take me to 
Himself; but what are my sufferings compared with 
those of the blessed Saviour who died on the accursed 
tree for me ? Mine are nothing.' " 

379 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

Sumner's last bitter words on Jackson, which I print 
without further comment, since the spirit in which they 
were written is painfully evident, are these : " In his 
last years he joined the church, and on that occasion, 
under the exhortations of his spiritual adviser, he pro- 
fessed to forgive all his enemies in a body, although 
it is otherwise asserted that he excepted those who had 
slandered his wife. It does not appear that he ever 
repented of anything, ever thought that he had been 
in the wrong in anything, or ever forgave an enemy 
as a specific individual." 

The end of his life was now at hand. Let us see 
how he met it, and what truly does appear concerning it. 
Parton has preserved certain pages of a diary kept by 
one William Tyack, whom he describes as being a friend 
and employe of the family, in which we are given an 
intimate personal account of the last days of the old 
hero. 

" Wednesday, May 28. — On my arrival I find the ex- 
President more comfortable than he has been, although 
his disease is not abated, and his long and useful life 
is rapidly drawing to its close. He has not been in a 
condition to lie down during the last four months. 

" Thursday, May 29. — General Jackson is rather 
more comfortable, having obtained from opiates some 
sleep. This day he sat awhile to Mr. Healy, who has 
been sent by Louis Philippe to paint his portrait. Mr. 
Healy told me it was the design of the King of the 
French to place his portrait by the side of Wash- 
ington, which already hangs in his gallery. Mr. Healy 
is commissioned by the king to paint the portraits of 
twelve of the most distinguished Revolutionary pa- 
triots, to surround those of Washington and Jack- 
son. Mr. Healy was enabled to make much progress 
in his work to-day; and, as usual, the general re- 
ceived many visitors — more than thirty. All were ad- 
mitted, from the humblest to the most renowned, to 

380 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

take the venerable chieftain by the hand and bid him 
farewell. Among the visitors was General Jessup, an 
old friend and companion in arms. The meeting of 
these faithful and gallant soldiers and servants of the 
republic was deeply interesting and affecting. A rever- 
end gentleman called to inquire in regard to the gen- 
eral's health, his faith, and future hope. The general 
said : ' Sir, I am in the hands of a merciful God. I have 
full confidence in His goodness and mercy. My lamp 
of life is nearly out, and the last glimmer has come. I 
am ready to depart when called. The Bible is true. 
The principles and statutes of that holy book have been 
the rule of my life, and I have tried to conform to its 
spirit as near as possible. Upon the sacred volume I 
rest my hope to eternal salvation, through the merits 
and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ.' 

" Friday, May 30. — The general passed a bad night ; 
no sleep ; extremely feeble this morning. Mr. Healy, 
with much exertion on the part of the general, was 
enabled to finish the portrait, on which he had labored 
with great care. It was presented the general. After 
examining it for some minutes, he remarked to Mr. 
Healy, ' I am satisfied, sir, that you stand at the head 
of your profession. If I may be allowed to judge 
of my own likeness, I can safely concur in the opinion 
of my family. This is the best that has been taken. I 
feel very much obliged to you, sir, for the very great 
labor and care you have been pleased to bestow upon 
it.' The family were all highly gratified with its faith- 
fulness. I consider it the most perfect representation I 
have seen, giving rather the remains of the heroic per- 
sonage than the full life that made him the most ex- 
traordinary combination of spirit and energy, with a 
slender frame, the world ever saw. 

" At nine o'clock, as is the custom, all the general's 
family, except the few who take their turn to watch by 
his side, took their leave of him. Each of the family 
approached him, received his blessing, bade him fare- 
well; kissed him, as it would seem, an eternal good- 

381 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

night ; for he would say, ' My work is done for life.' 
After his family retires it is touching to witness this 
heroic man, who has faced every danger with unyielding 
front, offer up his prayer for those whom Providence 
has committed to his care; that Heaven would protect 
and prosper them when he is no more — praying still 
more fervently to God for the preservation of his coun- 
try, of the Union, and the people of the United States 
from all foreign influence and invasion — tendering his 
forgiveness to his enemies, and his gratitude to God for 
His support and success through a long life, and for 
the hope of eternal salvation through the merits of our 
blessed Redeemer. 

" The general exerts himself to discharge every duty, 
and with all the anxious care that is possible ; but his 
debility, and the unremitting anguish he suffers, has 
almost extinguished every power except that of his 
intellect. Occasionally his distress produces spasmodic 
affections ; yet in the midst of the worst paroxysm 
of pain not a murmur, not even a groan, escapes his 
lips. Great and just in life, calm and resigned in 
death. 

" Saturday, May 30. — The general passed a dis- 
tressed night ; no sleep ; extreme debility this morning, 
attended with increased swelling of the abdomen and 
all his limbs and difficulty of breathing. He said, ' I 
hope God will grant me patience to submit to His holy 
will. He does all things well, and blessed be His holy 
and merciful name.' His Bible is always near him ; 
if he is in his chair it is on the table by his side ; when 
propped up in bed, that sacred volume is laid by him, 
and he often reads it. He has no power and is lifted 
in and out of his sitting posture in bed to the same 
posture in his chair. Nothing can exceed the affection- 
ate care, vigilance, and never-ceasing efforts of his pious 
and devoted family to administer to his relief; and 
yet, in the midst of the affliction which calls for so much 
attention and sympathy, kindness and hospitality to 
strangers are not omitted. 

"June I. — 'This day,' the general said, 'is the holy 

382 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

Sabbath, ordained by God and set apart to be devoted 
to His worship and praise. I always attended service at 
church when I could ; but now I can go no more.' He 
desired the family to go, as many as could, and charged 
them to continue the education of the poor at the 
Sabbath-school. This new system of instruction, he 
said, which blended the duties of religion with those of 
humanity, he considered of vast importance, and spoke 
with an emphasis which showed his anxiety to impress it 
on the family. Mrs. Jackson and her sister, Mrs. 
Adams, regularly attended to their instructions on the 
Sabbath. A part of the family went to church. The 
general looked out of the window and said : ' This is 
apparently the last Sabbath I shall be with you. God's 
will be done ; He is kind and merciful.' The general's 
look is often fixed with peculiar affection on his grand- 
daughter Rachel, named after his wife, so beloved, and 
whose memory he has so tenderly cherished. The young 
Rachel has all the lovely and amiable qualities for which 
the elder Mrs. Jackson was so remarkable. 

" Monday, June 2. — The general passed a bad night. 
No sleep. An evident increase of water on the chest. 
He read many letters, as usual. Some of them from 
persons of whom he had no knowledge, asking his auto- 
graphs, and making other requests. The letters were 
opened by some of his family. Mrs. Jackson or Mrs. 
Adams were almost constantly with him. He looked 
over them ; those of importance were opened and read. 
Among them was one from Major Donelson, charge- 
d'affaires to Texas, giving an account of the almost in- 
' credible proceedings of the British agent, _ Elliott, to 
prevent the annexation of Texas to the United States. 
The general said: * We have made a disgraceful sacri- 
fice of our territory (Oregon); an important portion 
of our country was given away to England without a 
shadow of title on the part of the claimants, as has been 
shown by the admissions of the English ministers on 
referring in Parliament to the King's map, on which 
the true boundaries were delineated, and of \yhich they 
were apprised when urging their demands.' ' Right on 

383 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

the side of the American people, and firmness in main- 
taining it,' he continued, ' with trust in God alone, will 
secure to them the integrity of the possessions of which 
the British government would now deprive them. I am 
satisfied that they will assert and vindicate what justice 
awards them, and that no part of our territory or coun- 
try will ever be submitted to any arbitration but of the 
cannon's mouth.' 

" He felt grateful, he said, to a merciful Providence, 
that had always sustained him through all his struggles, 
and in the defence of the continued independence and 
prosperity of his beloved country, and that he could now 
give up his stewardship and resign his breath to God 
who gave it, with the cheering reflection that the country 
was now settled down upon a firm, democratic basis; 
that the rights of the laboring classes were respected 
and protected ; ' for,' he added, * it is from them that 
the country derives all its prosperity and greatness, and 
to them we must ever look to defend our soil when 
invaded. They have never refused — no, sir, and never 
will. Give them an honest government, freedom from 
their monopolies and privileged classes, and. hard money 
— not paper currency — for their hard labor, and all will 
be well.' 

" At two o'clock P.M. his distress became suddenly 
very great, and the water increasing to an alarming 
extent, an express was sent to Nashville, twelve miles, 
for surgical aid. An operation was performed by Dr. 
Esselman with success ; much water was taken from 
his abdomen, which produced great relief, although ex- 
treme prostration. 

" Tuesday, June 3. — Much distress through the night. 
Opiates were freely administered, but sleep appeared to 
have passed from him. Calm and perfectly resigned to 
the will of his Redeemer, he prayed to God to sustain 
him in the hour of dissolution. 

" At ten A.M. Doctors Robinson and Walters arrived 
from Nashville. Doctor Esselman having remained 
with the general through the night, a consultation was 
held and all that had been done was approved ; and all 

384 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

that could be done was to conform to the general's tem- 
porary wants. 

"At four P.M. I left his house for home. He ex- 
pressed great solicitude in my behalf, but I was silent; 
the scene was too affecting ; and I left this aged soldier, 
statesman, and Christian patriot, with all the pious and 
hospitable inmates of the Hermitage, without the power 
of saying farewell." 

Four days after Tyack's departure Jackson died. Dr. 
Esselman, who attended him in his last illness, thus de- 
scribes his death-bed: 

" On Sunday morning," writes Dr. Esselman, " on 
entering his room, I found him sitting in his armchair, 
with his two faithful servants, George and Dick, by 
his side, who had just removed him from his bed. I 
immediately perceived that the hand of death was upon 
him. I infornled his son that he could survive but a 
few hours, and he immediately dispatched a servant for 
Major William B. Lewis, the general's devoted friend. 
Mrs. Jackson informed me that it was the general's re- 
quest that in case he grew worse, or was thought to be 
near his death. Major Lewis should be sent for, as he 
wished him to be near him in his last moments. He 
was instantly removed to his bed, but before he could 
be placed there he had swooned away. His family and 
servants, believing him to be dead,, were very much 
alarmed, and manifested the most intense grief; how- 
ever, in a few seconds reaction took place, and he be- 
came conscious, and raised his eyes, and said : ' My 
dear children, do not grieve for me ; it is true I am 
going to leave you ; I am well aware of my situation ; 
I have suffered much bodily pain, but my sufferings 
are but as nothing compared with that which our blessed 
Saviour endured on that accursed cross, that we might 
all be saved who put their trust in Him.' He first 
advised Mrs. Jackson (his daughter-in-law) and took 
leave of her, reminding her of her tender kindness to- 
wards him at all times, and especially during his pro- 
25 385 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

tracted illness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a 
widowed sister of Mrs. Jackson, who had been a mem- 
ber of the general's family for several years) in the 
most kind and affectionate manner, reminding her also 
of her tender devotion towards him during his illness. 
He next took leave of his adopted son in the most 
affectionate and devoted manner. He next took leave 
of his grandchildren and the children of Mrs. Adams. 
He kissed and blessed them in a manner so touchingly 
impressive that I have no language that can do this 
scene justice. He discovered that there were two of 
the boys absent — one of his grandsons and one of Mrs. 
Adams'. He inquired for them. He was informed 
that they were at the chapel, attending Sunday-school. 
He desired that they should be sent for. As soon as they 
came he kissed and blessed them also, as he had done 
to those with him. By this time most of his servants 
had collected in his room or at the windows. When he 
had taken leave of them all, he delivered one of the 
most impressive lectures on the subject of religion that 
I have ever heard. He spoke for nearly half an hour, 
and apparently with the power of inspiration ; for he 
spoke with calmness, with strength, and, indeed, with 
animation. I regret exceedingly that there was no one 
present who could have noted down his precise words. 
In conclusion he said : ' My dear children, and friends, 
and servants, I hope and trust to meet you all in heaven, 
both white and black.' The last sentence he repeated — 
'both white and black,' looking at them with the ten- 
derest solicitude. With these words he ceased to speak, 
but fixed his eyes on his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson 
(who bears the name of his own beloved wife), for 
several seconds. What was passing through his mind 
at that moment I will not pretend to say, but it did 
appear to me that he was invoking the blessings of 
Heaven to rest upon her." 

When I think of the end of that life, the storm-tossed 
old warrior entering the haven where he would find that 

386 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

rest that had been denied him all his life, I am minded 
to voice an ancient prayer which runs, " Let me die the 
death of the righteous, and let my last end be like 
his !" 

As to Jackson's last words, I am inclined to think that 
the narrators allowed themselves to fill out, in accord- 
ance with their own ideas of his meaning, the broken 
sentences of the dying man, which Buell gives as " Don't 

cry. Be good. We shall meet ." To me there is 

much more that is natural and characteristic in these 
words, and there is much more that is suggestive and 
beautiful in the long silence that fell upon those old 
lips as they strove to voice that uncompleted sentence 
than in any graceful period supplied by any one else. 
No one ever put words in Jackson's mouth in life, no 
one should be allowed to do it in death either. Well, 
the sentence was broken and interrupted, but the long 
life was roundly finished, complete and well. 

Lewis gave another account of that last scene of all 
in this strange eventful history to Parton, which I quote 
until the end. 

Major Lewis arrived about noon. " Major," said 
the dying man in a feeble voice, but quite audibly, 
" I am glad to see you. You had like to have been 
too late." 

During most of the afternoon he lay tranquil and 
without pain, speaking occasionally to Major Lewis, 
who never left his bedside. He sent farewell messages 
to Colonel Benton, Mr. Blair, General Houston, and 
to other friends not known to the public. At half-past 
five, after a long interval of silence, his son took his 
hand and whispered in his ear : 

" Father, how do you feel? Do you know me?" 

" Know you ?" he replied, " yes. I know you. I would 
know you all if I could see. Bring me my spectacles." 

When his spectacles were brought he said : 

387 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

" Where is my daughter and Marian ? God will take 
care of you for me. I am my God's, I belong to Him, 
I go but a short time before you, and I want to meet 
you all, white and black, in heaven," 

All present burst into tears. The crowd of servants 
on the piazza, who were all day looking through the 
windows, sobbed, cried out, and wrung their hands. 
The general spoke again: 

" What is the matter with my dear children ? Have 
I alarmed you? Oh, do not cry. Be good children, 
and we will all meet in heaven," 

These were his last words. He lay half an hour 
with closed eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major 
Lewis stood close to his head. The family were about 
the bed silently waiting and weeping. George and the 
faithful Hannah were present. Hannah could not be 
induced to leave the room. " I was born and raised 
on the place," said she, " and my place is here." At 
six o'clock the general's head suddenly fell forward and 
was caught by Major Lewis. The major applied his 
ear to the mouth of his friend and found that he had 
ceased to breathe. He had died without a struggle 
or a pang. Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew 
down the body upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon 
looking again at the face, he observed that the expres- 
sion of pain which it had worn so long had passed away. 
Death had restored it to naturalness and serenity. The 
aged warrior slept. 

Two days after he was laid in the grave by the side 
of his wife, of whom he had said, not long before he 
died, " Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet 
my wife there." All Nashville and the country round 
about seemed to be present at the funeral. Three thou- 
sand persons were thought to be assembled on the lawn 
in front of the house, when Dr. Edgar stepped upon 
the portico to begin the services. After prayer had 

388 




LAST PORTRAIT OF ANDREW JACKSON, PAINTED A SHORT 
TIME PREVIOUS TO HIS DEATH 

From the original by Colonel R. E. W. Earl in the possession of 
Colonel Andrew Jackson 



RELIGION— LAST DAYS 

been offered a favorite psalm of the departed was 
sung: 

" Why should we start and fear to die? 
What timorous worms we mortals are !" 

The text of the sermon was : " These are they which 
came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes 
white in the blood of the Lamb." . . . Another hymn 
which the general had loved concluded the ceremonies. 
The body was then borne to the garden and placed in 
the tomb long ago prepared for its reception. " I never 
witnessed a funeral of half the solemnity," wrote a 
spectator at the time. The tablet which covers the 
remains bears this inscription : 

General 

ANDREW JACKSON 

Born on the 15th of March, 1767, 

Died on the 8th of June, 1845. 



389 



XVIII 
Jackson's place in our history 

" What," asks Professor William Garrott Brown in 
concluding his lucid and comprehensive monograph on 
Jackson, " is the rightful place in history of the fiery 
horseman in front of the White House ? * The reader 
must answer for himself when he has studied for him- 
self all the great questions Jackson dealt with. Such a 
study will surely show that he made many mistakes, did 
much injustice to men, espoused many causes without 
waiting to hear the other side, was often bitter, violent, 
even cruel. It will show how ignorant he was on many 
subjects, how prejudiced on others. It will show him 
in contact with men who surpassed him in wisdom, in 
knowledge, in fairness of mind. It will deny him a 
place among those calm, just, great men who can see 
both sides and yet strive ardently for the right side. 

" But the longest inquiry will not discover another 
American of his times who had in such ample measure 
the gifts of courage and will. Many had fewer faults, 
many superior talents, but none so great a spirit. He 
was the man who had his way. He was the American 
whose simple virtues his countrymen most clearly under- 
stood, whose trespasses they most readily forgave ; and 
until Americans are altogether changed, many, like the 
Democrats of the 'twenties and 'thirties, will still ' vote 
for Jackson' — for the poor boy who fought his way, 
step by step, to the highest station ; for the soldier who 
always went to meet the enemy at the gate ; for the 

* Alluding to the equestrian statue of the general at Wash- 
ington. It is proper to say that I do not entirely agree, vv'ith 
this estimate, although generally endorsing it. — C. T. B. 

390 




i^^ 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

President who never shirked a responsibility ; for the 
man who would not think evil of a woman or speak 
harshly to a child. Education and training in statecraft 
would have saved him many errors ; culture might have 
softened the fierceness of his nature. But untrained, 
uncultivated, imperfect as he was, not one of his great 
contemporaries had so good a right to stand for Ameri- 
can character." 

If, in this book, I have done my work well, the intelli- 
gent reader who has progressed thus far will have ac- 
quired a just conception of the character and career of 
Andrew Jackson. In such a case it may be argued that 
any further words from me on the subject are unneces- 
sary. If, on the other hand, my task has been indiffer- 
ently performed, then any comments of mine are not 
only superfluous, but impertinent. Therefore shall I 
say on, or not? 

In the humble hope that I have been fair and adequate 
in my treatment of my great and entrancing subject, 
and in the further hope that I have not failed in my 
endeavor to " nothing extenuate" on the one hand, 
" nor set down aught in malice" on the other, I dare 
venture to submit an estimate, brief, I promise you, of 
Jackson's place in our history, together with some re- 
marks as to our future which must inevitably occur to 
every searcher in our past, to every observer of our 
present. 

It will be universally admitted that we have had at 
least two great Presidents in our history, men who 
were great personalities and who contributed invaluably 
to the welfare of the Republic, Washington and Lin- 
coln. Greatness is primarily a matter of character, but 
the world measures it usually by results. And that for 
this discussion is a safe standard. If results, then, be 
a test of greatness, another factor must of necessity be 
considered in estimating the places of men — opportu- 

391 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

nity. To George Washington and to Abraham Lincoln 
great opportunities were presented. Those opportuni- 
ties they mastered with splendid results to their country 
and to mankind. Others might possibly have done as 
well given the same chance, but since the chance was 
withheld they may be dismissed from further considera- 
tion. Is Andrew Jackson entitled to be mentioned with 
these two, either by what he was, or by what he accom- 
plished in or out of the Presidency? I think so. He 
falls below them both, but he rises above every other 
President in the long line. 

Let us go back in our history a little and strive right- 
fully to place these three men. 

When what disputes with the Constitution the honor 
of being described as the greatest document ever struck 
off at one time by human hand, the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, was spread before the eyes of startled 
Europe ; in spite of the age-long struggle human lib- 
erty — civil, political, and religious liberty, that is — was 
in most countries a philosophic dream. Even that 
sturdy little Helvetian confederacy was under the domi- 
nation of an oligarchy as narrow and as supreme as 
that which had swayed for a thousand years the des- 
tinies of Venice. There was liberty nowhere on the 
surface. There was a passion for it everywhere in 
human hearts. 

Then it pleased God to bring together in America 
such a group of men as few countries have ever assem- 
bled at one time within their borders. James Otis, John 
Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander 
Hamilton, James Madison, Robert Morris, and Benja- 
min Franklin, to think and plan ; Nathanael Greene, 
Israel Putnam, Anthony Wayne, Daniel Morgan, John 
Stark, Francis Marion, John Paul Jones, Richard Mont- 
gomery, Harry Lee, Baron De Kalb, Marquis de 
Lafayette, and, in his earlier career, Benedict Arnold, 

392 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

to do and dare; and as the unifying spirit not only to 
direct, but also to lead, and thus to stand supreme among 
them all — George Washington. Providence also put a 
blundering fool upon a throne, and surrounded him 
with venal counsellors and incompetent soldiers, to 
equalize the struggle of the few against the many. 
Thus the Revolution was fought and won. Thus the 
country was established. 

There is one significant feature of it. It was fought, 
won, and established under the leadership and guidance 
I might say of an oligarchy, certainly of an aristocracy. 
We had no official aristocracy in the country, but unoffi- 
cially there were well-established differences in rank 
even in democratic New England, where students were 
placed in Harvard College in accordance with the social 
status of their fathers! With few exceptions the sol- 
diers and statesmen of the Revolution were, in the old- 
fashioned sense of the word, of the degree of gentlemen. 
They came from the best society of their day. True, 
they could have done nothing had there not been that 
fortuitous concurrence of ideas and the ideal as repre- 
sented by the people and the few. True, they could 
have accomplished little had not the time been ripe for 
such leadership as they could offer; had not the idea 
of liberty been already inwrought in the minds of the 
people by the slow process of the ages. The under- 
standing of this point is of great importance in tracing 
our future development. It was the aristocracy of the 
land to which was due the establishment of the govern- 
ment. Nor by this do I minimize the popular contribu- 
tion to the work. That was necessary. Nothing could 
have been accomplished without the people. But with- 
out the leadership mentioned nothing could have been 
done by the people. They were not yet capable of 
evolving a leader themselves. 

There never was a kinglier man in any land, at any 

393 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

time, than George Washington. Wherever such a char- 
acter might have appeared his career would have been 
a marked one. If he had not been born to the purple, 
he would have achieved it. No man is independent of 
opportunity. For if, as Shakespeare says, its guilt is 
great, so also is its virtue ; but if ever a man were inde- 
pendent of opportunity, it was George Washington. 

Such an assemblage of qualities as he exhibited has 
rarely, if ever, been seen before in a single man ; yet he 
was not a demigod. The blood burned in his veins as 
prodigally as it beats in our own. He was full of the 
joy of life. His passions were as strong as those of 
any man. But his character was remarkable for a 
purity, an honesty, a dignity, a sanity, a restraint, a 
self-control, an ability, and a courage at which succeed- 
ing ages have marvelled. The testimony to his qualities 
is abundant and unimpeachable. In mind and mien he 
was more royal than the king. In my judgment, had 
he so desired, he might have been the founder of an 
empire and a dynasty, instead of the Father of a 
Republic. 

In the earlier history of the struggle for human lib- 
erty we find that the successive steps were always taken 
upon the initiative of the great, the gently-born, the 
well-to-do. Hampden was of the rank of gentleman, 
as was Cromwell, although he is nearer to an exception 
to this statement than any other. The Barons of 
Runnymede wresting the Magna Charta were the high 
aristocracy of England, and the people without them 
would have had no power to move the ineffable John. 
The early leaders of the French Revolution — as Mira- 
beau ! — were of the same high class. Not for a long 
time did men like Marat and Barere come to the fore. 
The American Revolution was engineered and directed 
and assured, I reaffirm, by the aristocracy, the best blood 
of the country. 

394 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

What then! Having achieved their task, Washing- 
ton and his fellows deliberately put liberty and its 
maintenance into the hands of the people. In the 
very nature of things, by the very plans which they 
made, by the Constitution itself, the whole power, the 
authority of the government, the entire responsibility 
for its administration and for its preservation, were 
taken out of the hands of the few and put into the 
hands of the many. 

It is difficult to estimate the importance of that action. 
There was no precedent for it. Experience had no word 
to say concerning its feasibility. The boldness of the 
Declaration of Independence was surpassed by the bold- 
ness of the Constitution. The one had stated that all 
men were created free and equal, that government de- 
rived its just powers from the consent of the governed; 
the other showed that men had the courage to stand by 
their assertions. Words are lacking to emphasize the 
sublime faith and the noble courage of the Constitution- 
makers — again the nation's best! Coldly considered, 
it was an experiment of such magnitude that we stand 
aghast even in backward contemplation of it. It might 
have been such a failure. 

It is probable that the experiment never would have 
succeeded if the transition had been sharp and abrupt 
between the customary^ and the proposed method of gov- 
ernment. The habit of centuries was still strong in 
humanity. During the earlier years of the Republic the 
people, timid in their own powers, committed its des- 
tinies to the same class under whose leadership had 
been won its liberty. The earlier Congresses exhibited 
a degree of wealth, station, and culture which no suc- 
ceeding assemblage of legislators has paralleled. 

But the people learned rapidly, and their work jus- 
tified the trust reposed in them. Among themselves the 
genius for leadership grew and flourished. The first 

395 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

President who came from the people was Andrew 
Jackson. 

What did he accompHsh? He taught the people that 
they must rule ; he was the true father of democratic 
government, of government " of the people, for the peo- 
ple, and by the people." It is better, in the long run, 
that the people should rule themselves badly than that 
another should rule them well. Certainly Jackson was 
more autocratic than any President who had preceded 
him or who followed him, but his autocracy was the 
autocracy of the plain people. Carlyle says that Napo- 
leon dominated France because he incarnated in himself 
the popular ideals and aspirations of France. He ruled 
because he was a great Napoleon among a multitude of 
little Napoleons. Jackson was the unquestioned ruler 
of this country, the idol of its people, because he repre- 
sented as few other Americans before him, and not over 
many since, the qualities of the American citizen, at 
least the qualities the American citizen loved. Not 
until then were the people so truly represented by the 
executive. And, furthermore, Jackson winning the 
Presidency admonished the people that it was not the 
perquisite of any favored class or condition of society, 
but that the humblest might aspire to it and achieve it 
by merit alone. Jackson was the incarnation of a popu- 
lar hope, the realization of a popular ambition, he was 
to the people a demonstration. 

The people had not learned to rule ; they made many 
grievous mistakes, of course, and Jackson likewise, but 
they made a great step upward when they wrested the 
powers of government from the hands of the few and 
placed them, where they belong in a republic, in the 
hands of the many. It was a great advance from the 
theoretical democracy of Jefferson, the philosopher, to 
the practical democracy of Jackson, the man of action. 
It was by and through Jackson's peculiar combination 

396 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

of qualities that the people were able to accomplish this 
revolutionary change. That is his first title to greatness. 

Opportunity was given to Jackson to render more 
notable service to the country, too, than any President 
save the two mentioned enjoyed. As has been pointed 
out, his ability as a soldier and his characteristics as a 
man saved the country west of the Mississippi to the 
United States. The value of that service can scarcely 
be overstated. During his Presidency the stand he took 
on secession has been noted. These, with his settle- 
ment of our financial difficulties with France and his 
destruction of that eventual source of corruption in 
politics, the Second Bank of the United States, are his 
secondary claims to our grateful remembrance in asso- 
ciation with Washington and Lincoln. And who shall 
limit the effect of Jackson's Nullification Proclamation 
and his action on the men of sixty-one? How much 
were the giants of those days influenced or guided by 
what Jackson had said or done? 

I quote again that exquisite paragraph from Fiske's 
essay on the subject under consideration. " The recol- 
lection of it [the Nullification Proclamation, etc.] had 
much to do with setting men's faces in the right direc- 
tion in the early days of i86i ; and those who lived 
through that doubting, anxious time will remember how 
people's thoughts went back to that grim, gaunt figure, 
long since at peace in the grave, and from many and 
many a mouth was heard the prayer : Oh, for one hour 
of Andrew Jackson!" 

In the first ninety years of its history the Republic had 
demonstrated its right to existence. Its course, save 
for the blot on its escutcheon involved in the unjust 
war with Mexico, had been highly honorable among 
nations. It was not likely that any foreign foe would 
ever be able to overwhelm it or impair the stability of 
its institutions. With a constantly increasing success 

397 



THE TRUE- ANDREW JACKSON 

had been demonstrated the feasibihty of a government 
administered by, and for the benefit of, the people. The 
event had justified the wisdom of the founders. The 
world on every hand looked on and took lessons. And 
well it might. No single fact in history has been so 
pregnant with happiness and welfare to mankind as the 
demonstration of democratic government which we 
have afforded. The consequences are not yet exhausted. 

The political course of the world's history since 1776 
has not been backward. Some of us may live to see the 
day when Russia will become a representative govern- 
ment, when the absolutism of Germany will be an 
archaic fiction, and when kings will be by the grace of 
the people, if indeed they be at all. Some day all civil- 
ized nations, whatever their outward form of govern- 
ment, will be as free as we are, as England and France 
are, to-day. 

Now a country which may have strength enough to 
fight valiantly for its existence against external foes 
may yet carry within itself the seeds of its own destruc- 
tion. In 1 86 1 came the final trial as to whether or not 
the experiment that was begun by Washington, that 
was perpetuated by Jackson, was finally to come to an 
inglorious end. Without passion or prejudice, — cer- 
tainly it is too late for that now, — without any feeling 
for any section of our country but love and devotion, 
without going into the causes of the Civil War, looking 
only to the fact that upon its success or failure depended 
the existence of the United States, realizing that if one 
section could separate from the main body upon ag- 
grievement, so also could another, and that one single 
separation probably meant the solution of all organic 
coherence and the substitution of a number of jealous, 
circumscribed, petty, and insignificant States for a great 
homogeneous nation, thus involving the utter downfall 
of the great idea of the founders of the Republic and 

398 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

of the Constitution, we can realize the importance of 
the conservation of the United States as a nation. 

The aristocracy of the country had founded a nation 
and had committed its government to the people. For 
a generation, with many blunders and mistakes, the 
people had been trying to carry on the government. 
They had met emergencies as they had arisen, but the 
supreme test had not yet confronted them, what would 
they do in that? No longer did aristocracy dominate. 
No longer does it dominate to-day — I use the words in 
the old sense of degree ; in the long run the aristocracy 
of talent and character will always dominate in the 
Republic and elsewhere. Washington had done his 
part. Jackson had done his part. Would the people 
be equal in the crisis to the obligations of their position ? 

Who is responsible for the successful conduct of the 
war between the States ? To whom, under God, is due 
the perpetuation of the Republic? Many men took 
great part, many men deserve well of the nation. Grant, 
Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, and Meade; Stanton, 
Sumner, Chase, and Seward. Their services are as 
nothing compared to those of Abraham Lincoln. And 
he was a man of the people in every sense of the word ; 
mark it, a man of the people! The people themselves 
had brought forth a man capable of leadership. Out of 
the dust of earth did God make this man in His own 
image. Washington opened the way for Jackson, Jack- 
son blazed the trail for Lincoln, and Lincoln trod suc- 
cessfully upon the path. 

Dissimilar these three men were. Washington, born 
of the world's great; the richest, the best bred, the most 
im.portant, the most influential man of his time. Jack- 
son, with the manner and training of a courtier and the 
methods of a backwoodsman. Lincoln, so humble, so 
obscure in his origin that it can with difficulty be traced. 
Washington, with every grace and charm and character- 

399 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

istic that marks the high-bred gentleman ; Jackson, 
charming all he did not affright with his lack of control 
by the grace of his bearing; Lincoln, with few or none 
of these things. The first a prince, the last a peasant, 
the one between a compound of both. 

Washington's character is not complex. It is simple 
and easy to understand — and not the less great and 
admirable on that account. Be it remarked in passing, 
that he was no English country gentleman, as has been 
alleged, but as good an American as Franklin or as 
Lincoln himself. Jackson's character and qualities have 
been set forth at length. 

Lincoln was a creature of contradictions. In person 
so homely as when pictured almost to repel, but with 
an appeal so powerful and inexplainable that in personal 
contact his ugliness was forgotten. Perhaps men near 
him caught a glimpse of his soul, unconsciously re- 
vealed. A man full of that quaint humor we love to 
call American, yet over his face a tinge of sadness as if 
tragedy peeped from behind the mask of comedy. A 
man whose stories were frequently not repeatable, yet 
of a deeply religious nature, a piety as fervent as it 
was uncommon, a trust as pervading as it was sincere. 
An unlettered man, yet whose beautiful words will live 
as long as the language of Shakespeare and the English 
Bible shall endure. A man with many failings, who 
made many mistakes ; a man with the stain of the soil 
whence he sprang clinging to him; yet with qualities 
that enabled him to speak to his fellow-men with the 
foresight of a prophet, to accomplish the impossible 
with the powers of a king, to pursue his duty with the 
serenity of a saint. 

As I look back upon our American history, as I view 
side by side these three gigantic men towering among 
their contemporaries, each ready in the day of need, I 
break forth in the words of the ancient prophet, " What 

400 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

hath God wrought?" The one to found and build a 
Repubhc, to give it a priceless heritage into a people's 
hands ; the second to receive it as of the people himself, 
to save it in a day of lesser emergency and to pass it 
on strengthened by his touch; the last to rise in the 
crowded hour and say in the words of a greater than 
man, " I have finished the work which thou gavest me 
to do. . . . Those that thou gavest me I have kept and 
none of them is lost." 

Oh, flag that floats above us, thank God that from 
thy blazonry never hath been torn a single star ! 

I call Washington the founder, Jackson the perpet- 
uater, and Lincoln the preserver of our country. 

So much for the past. What of the future ? Can we 
unlock it with the past's blood-rusted key? On the 
threshold of a new century stands the country of Wash- 
ington, Jackson, and Lincoln. The United States is 
menaced by threatening conditions, confronted by diffi- 
cult problems, weighted with grave responsibilities, ex- 
ternal and internal. These are the circumstances of 
success. To struggle is to live. The law of battle is 
the law of life. Well might Alexander weep with no 
more worlds to conquer, for then began his decadence. 
The country whose need fails to engross its highest 
citizenship in its problems, in which the people do not 
cheerfully give their best consideration to its questions, 
is a country already in a state of decay. Thank God for 
all our burdens ! By them we prove our manhood. 

For one hundred years we were content to expand 
peacefully within our natural limits. Between the seas 
we reigned supreme. In the twinkling of an eye we 
found ourselves projected, almost without intent, into 
the sphere of world politics. Not that we were in a 
state of complete isolation before. As with individuals, 
so with nations, entire isolation is not possible ; as men 
live among men, so nations must live among nations, 
26 401 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

sustaining certain definite and well-understood relations 
with one another, whatever may be the individual desire 
to be solitary, alone. 

But our concerns with foreign powers and affairs 
had been remote and not of especial importance. 

To-day we have become a factor in the politics of the 
world. In the Chancellaries of Europe the leading ques- 
tion in nearly every contingency, — not purely local, — 
that arises is, " What will the United States do?" Our 
American diplomacy which has honesty for its finesse 
and truth for its subtilty — where neither has been in 
vogue — takes the lead in public questions. With neither 
army nor navy comparable in size to that of other 
nations, — although so far as they go unsurpassed, — we 
are still the greatest single factor to be reckoned with. 

We have said to one-half the world : " This half is 
ours. Keep out of it !" Therefore, we have made our- 
selves responsible for the welfare, the well-being, and 
more especially the well-doing, of that of which we 
have assumed to be the warden. How are we dis- 
charging that trust ? So as to retain the respect of older 
powers, on the one hand, and the affection of those 
newer nations of which we have assumed the guardian- 
ship on the other, or not? 

Our flag floats in the sunrise on one hemisphere in 
Porto Rico at the same hour that it is gilded by the 
sunset in the Philippines on the other. And the end is 
not yet. We are about to tear asunder the barrier 
which has separated ocean from ocean since God called 
the dry land from the deep. This is our position among 
the weak and the strong. What is to be the end of our 
expansion? Shall we go on? Shall we stand still? 
Shall we acquire? Shall we retain? 

Never in history did a nation say as we did to Cuba, 
" Go, you are free t" Shall we say that some day to our 
little brown brethren across the Pacific? Shall we train 

403 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

and try them for that end? Shall we grasp at power 
with greedy, rapacious hands? Shall we give way to 
vaulting ambition which shall by and by o'erleap itself 
and carry us down in its fall? 

Shall the Republic continue to stand for honesty and 
integrity and the fear of God among the nations ? Shall 
there be liberty wherever the flag flies, or else the with- 
drawal of the flag? Shall we stand eternally for what 
Washington founded and Jackson perpetuated and Lin- 
coln preserved? Or shall we do some other thing? 

There come to our harbors every day a horde of 
people from the Old World, following that westward 
moving star of empire, seeking their fortunes in this 
land of equal opportunity for all, of special privilege 
for none. What shall we do with them? What shall 
be our position with regard to immigration? How 
much of such an influx can our people assimilate? 
What quantity of food of that character can the nation 
digest? How many foreign people can we turn into 
good American citizens without lowering our immortal 
standards? How far shall we shut the open door? 
What restriction shall we place upon our welcome ? 

These are external problems. There are internal 
ones, perhaps of greater moment and harder to solve. 
Within our borders are millions of black people, an 
alien race whose mental habit and temperament differ 
from ours even as we are physically at variance. What 
shall we do with these people? Believe me, Appo- 
mattox simply changed the form of the question. It 
settled another question, not that one. Emancipation 
solved one problem only to introduce another. That 
problem confronts us with a constantly increasing de- 
mand, a demand full of menace, fraught with appalling 
possibilities. There appears as yet no solution of it. 
Education, we fatuously cry, but education is not the 
universal resolvent. We cannot educate away the racial 

403 



fe 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

difference. The welfare of this country depends on the 
retention of power by the white race. White and black 
in blend make gray, the ruination of the positive and 
valuable in both. How shall this be a white man's 
country with a white man's government and yet a fit 
home for the black man? 

The principle of combination is universally accepted 
in the affairs of men. Consolidation, concentration, are 
the conditions of success. How far may this consoli- 
dation and concentration in the form of capital on the 
one hand, and of men on the other, be brought about? 
And when brought about what relation shall they sus- 
tain to each other ? What shall we do with the trusts ? 
what shall we do with the unions? 

Life without law is impossible. Laws are man's ex- 
pression of his reading of the will of God. Happy is 
the state in which the laws are not only adequate but 
observed. How shall we check the general disregard 
of law which is so singular a reversion to conditions 
long past when every man was a law unto himself? 
Long ago the right of private war was done away with. 
There is a backward swing of the pendulum of public 
opinion. Men have forgot that vengeance is God's 
and punishment belongs to the state. How shall we 
reassert effectively our determination that the law shall 
be administered only by those whom we have charged 
with that solemn, that vital duty? 

The daily histories of the times, the newspapers, ring 
with charge and countercharge of political corruption 
in city. State, and nation. We would fain believe that 
much of the hue and cry is false, but we know that a 
terrible proportion of it is true. The best blood of the 
nation is strangely indifferent to the demands of the 
hour. For good government there should be a proper 
blending of Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln, the first 
representing education, culture, refinement, the second 

404 



JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY 

the great, beating heart of the people, the third the sum 
of human consecration and toil. It will not do to trust 
to the low, the ignorant, and the venal the issues of life 
and government. Republics in history have tended to 
become oligarchies. Shall we reverse the work of 
Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln and submit ourselves 
unresisting, indifferent, to an oligarchy of bosses? 

There are social problems as pressing. The sanctity 
of home life, the holiness of the marriage relation, is 
everywhere invaded. The social unit, the family, is being 
sundered into disorderly atoms by the growing evil of 
divorce. In it we are striking at the children. 

There is a growing inclination to excess on the part 
of the rich and the well-to-do which is fatal to national 
honor, to national honesty. Frugality is to a democracy 
what modesty is to a woman. Extravagance is an attri- 
bute of empire. The follies of men in high station are 
vices when they are translated by men of less degree. 
There is a tendency in our midst to become intoxicated 
not only with our position in the world, but with our 
internal prosperity. How shall we check it? 

Publicity is the safeguard of a Republic. Concealment 
is the essence of despotism. How, while conserving the 
freedom of the press, shall we also conserve the freedom 
of the private citizen, so that his personal affairs with 
which the public have no concern shall not be exploited 
and misrepresented by unscrupulous newspapers? 

These are a few of the things which call to the 
patriotism of to-day. Love of country is usually asso- 
ciated with the bullet and the bayonet. The call of the 
flag is not merely a summons to war, it is a demand 
upon every citizen at every moment to do his civic duty 
with the same devotion, the same courage, with which 
he would answer an appeal to arms. It takes more 
resolution, of a higher if of a different order, to grapple 
with the questions which I have so briefly outlined, than 

405 



THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON 

simply to follow a leader or even to lead ourselves in 
the high places of the field. 

In v^hat did Washington's greatness lie? In what 
did Jackson's greatness lie? In what did Lincoln's 
greatness lie? I would not affirm that they were 
supreme above all others in any particular field. Wash- 
ington and Jackson, brilliant soldiers that they were, 
were not the greatest captains that ever set a squadron. 
Lincoln, profoundly politic and farseeing as he was, was 
not the greatest statesman that ever outlined a policy. 
Indeed, it would be hard to point to any one thing in 
which these three, unchallenged, might claim the palm. 

They were great because in each of them were 
blended a congeries of qualities which made up a per- 
sonality far beyond the common lot: a personality that 
was honest, that was pure, that was unselfish, that was 
able, that was devoted to mankind, to the country in 
which they all served; a personality which chose duty 
and service for its watchwords ; a personality that was 
" efficient for the best." When you analyze great men, 
as a rule you will find that their greatness lies in that 
mysterious thing we call personality, which is made up 
of, and is yet disassociated from, special talents. Many 
talents go to make genius. To be great there must be i 
balance and proportion. Without these the most bril- ' 
liant achievement lacks permanence. 

We cannot all be great statesmen, great soldiers, great 
administrators, — what you will, — ^but we may all be great 
patriots. We can each one of us so direct those qualities 
which God has bestowed upon us as to become a per- 
sonality whose sole aim and end is the betterment of 
men and the service of the state. And for that purpose 
it is not idle for me to hold up for emulation the exam- 
ple of Washington, of Jackson, or of Lincoln ; for there 
is no example too high for us to struggle to attain, not 
even the Example of the Cross. 

406 



APPENDIX 



Appendix A 

ON THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANDREW JACKSON 

[Note. — This most interesting and valuable paper, 
which seems to settle the question, has been especially 
prepared for this book by Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., Secre- 
tary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina, 
and author of numerous historical and genealogical 
papers relating to Southern subjects. — C. T. B.] 

Of the many mooted questions in American history 
that of the birthplace of Andrew Jackson, seventh Presi- 
dent of the United States, is one of the most misunder- 
stood. During Jackson's lifetime it was almost univer- 
sally accepted that he was born in South Carolina, but of 
recent years it has come to be believed generally that he 
was born in North Carolina. The encyclopaedias and bi- 
ographers either state that his birthplace is a matter of 
doubt or that it was in North Carolina. But the most 
impartial and acceptable evidence all points to a well- 
defined spot in South Carolina as his birthplace. 

Jackson himself repeatedly declared that he was born 
in South Carolina, and his is the best evidence we have, 
since his estimable mother died and left behind no 
testimony on the subject that has yet been put in evi- 
dence or that we know of. Jackson knew his own birth- 
place as well as any man knows the spot of his own 
birth. He grew up in the neighborhood of his birth. 
He was a boy of more than usual intelligence. He lived 
with or near his mother until after he had grown up, 
and he doubtless discussed every phase of his life with 
her, just^as^allof us who have been so fortunate as to 
have had a mother's care from birth to manhood have 

407 



APPENDIX 

done. The date of birth given by Jackson is commonly 
accepted as true. Why should the place given by him 
be rejected? 

It is preposterous to say that a boy of Jackson's cal- 
ibre did not know the exact spot of his birth ; that as a 
young lawyer, who had been reared in the immediate 
vicinity of his birthplace and had known the exact loca- 
tion thereof from childhood up and knew every foot 
of ground in the vicinity, and knew of the controversies 
that had arisen over the boundary line running near his 
birthplace, he did not know whether that spot was in 
North Carolina or South Carolina ; that the man grown 
to maturity and trained in the school of experience and 
rich in the highest honors which his country could be- 
stow would have asserted so positively on various occa- 
sions that he was born in South Carolina unless he knew 
whereof he spoke. 

What does the law say as to evidence of this sort : 

" The facts of birth and age are matters of pedigree upon 
which hearsay evidence has been held in many cases to be ad- 
missible. So a party may testify to his own age without giv- 
ing the source of his information. His age is a fact of which 
he may be said to have knowledge based upon family tradi- 
tion." — The American and English Encyclopcedia of Law. 

" Of course, facts which might be shown by proof of declara- 
tions of a person deceased may be shown by the testimony of 
the same person living, so that a witness may testify as to who is 
his father, or as to his age, although, of course, he cannot know 
these matters by personal knowledge." — Alston vs. Alston 
(Iowa, 1901), 86 Northwestern Reporter, 57. 

We will now proceed to furnish " proof of declara- 
tions of a person deceased." What does Jackson say 
as to his birthplace? In a letter, dated at Washington, 
December 24, 1830, replying to a letter from J. R. 
Pringle, intendant of Charleston, inviting him to visit 
Charleston, he says : 

" Although it will be gratifying to my feelings, to avail myself 
of so favorable an opportunity to visit the emporium of my 
native state, I am yet prevented by my ofificial engagements 
from designating the period when I can seize it." — Niles' Weekly 
Register, xxxix, p. 385. 

408 



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FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER FROM PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON 
TO JOEL R. POINSETT, DECEMBER 2, 1832 
(Now in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) 
This letter was written a few days before the issue of the Nullifi- 
cation proclamation, and authorizes the use of force to preserve the 
Union. It is one of Jackson's most characteristic letters 



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APPENDIX 

In a letter to Joel R. Poinsett, of Charleston, South 
Carolina, a native-born South Carolinian, dated at 
Washington, December 9, 1832, he says: 

" If the Union party unite with you, heart & hand in the text 
you have laid down, you will not only preserve the Union, but 
save our native state, from that ruin and disgrace into which 
her treasonable leaders have attempted to plunge her." — Stille's 
" Life and Services of Joel R. Poinsett," p. 64. 

In his proclamation of December 10, 1832, anent the 
" Nullification" Convention of South Carolina (see 
Appendix C), he uses this language: 

" Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish 
you, as the First Magistrate of our common country, not to 
incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a 
father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain 
ruin." — The Charleston Courier, Monday, December 17, 1832. 

Again, in a letter to Poinsett, dated at Washington, 
January 24, 1833, he says : 

" I repeat again, my pride and desire is, that the Union men 
may arouse & sustain the majesty of the constitution & the laws, 
and save my native state from that disgrace that the Nullifiers 
have brought upon her." — Stille's " Life and Services of Joel 
R. Poinsett," p. 68. 

In a letter to Governor Hammond, of South Carolina, 
dated at The Hermitage, January 13, 1843, he wrote: 

" Conscious as I am of the integrity and propriety of my con- 
duct in regard to Judge Hall, it is truly grateful to my feelings 
to find the Legislature of my native State, So Carolina, uniting 
with the Legislatures of other States in those high and honor- 
able feelings of Justice which their resolutions so plainly in- 
dicate."— T/z^ Sunday Nezvs, Charleston, S. C, August 7, 1904- 

And, finally, in his last will and testament (see Ap- 
pendix E), General Jackson declared that South Caro- 
lina was his native State, and took such pains so to 
declare, that it really looks as if his last wish was to cut 
off controversy on this point. He says : 

" the large silver vase presented to me by the ladies of Charles- 
ton South Carolina, my native State, with the large Picture rep- 

40Q 



APPENDIX 

fesenting the unfurling of the American banner, presented to 
me by citizens of South CaroUna, when it was refused to be 
accepted by the United States Senate, I leave in trust to my 
son A. Jackson, Jr. with directions that should our happy 
country not be blessed with peace, an event not always to be 
expected, he v/ill at the close of the war, or end of the conflict, 
present each of said articles of inestimable valine, to that 
patriott residing in the City or State from which they were pre- 
sented who shall be adjudged by his countrymen, or the ladies, 
to have been the most valient in defence of his country, and our 
countries rights." 

"State of Tennessee, 
"Davidson County, 

"I, P. A. Shelton, Clerk of the County 
Court in and for the County and State aforesaid, do hereby cer- 
tify, that the foregoing is a full, true and perfect copy of the 
above clause in the will of Andrew Jackson, deceased, as the 
same appears of file and on record in my office at Nashville, 
Tennessee. 

"Witness my hand and the seal of said Court, at oflfice, this 
the 9th day of July, 1904. P. A. Shelton, Clerk." 

Colonel W. C. Tatom, of The American, of Nashville, 
wrote to the editor of The News and Courier in trans- 
mitting the above document: 

' ' I suppose it may be fairly assumed that General Jackson 
knew whether he was born in North Carolina or South Carolina. 
The enclosed was copied from the original will written by Gen- 
eral Jackson himself and is a literal, true and faithful copy. I 
held the original while the clerk copied the clause, and then I 
read it ' by copy. ' The will is well preserved and the writing 
is clear and distinct, ' ' 

Jackson's evidence is all to the effect that South Caro- 
lina was his native State. His evidence would have 
been accepted in a court of law, and no evidence that 
would have been admissible in such a court at the time 
of its making has yet been introduced to contradict his. 

What do Jackson's early biographers — those who 
personally knew him and enjoyed his confidence — say? 
The first biography of Jackson was published by Mat- 
thew Carey & Son, of Philadelphia, in 1817, and was 

410 



APPENDIX 

prepared by John Reid, who had served in the United 
States army with Jackson and had defended him in his 
trial before Judge Hall, in New Orleans, and John H. 
Eaton, one of his Tennessee neighbors, subsequently 
a member of his Cabinet. They had every opportunity 
to find out where Jackson was born, when he was 
born, and how he was bom. He was alive to be con- 
sulted, and many of his contemporaries and elders of 
the neighborhood of his birthplace (the Waxhaw set- 
tlement of South Carolina) were alive. If Reid and 
Eaton were wrong, why were they not corrected by 
some of the North Carolinians who were then alive and 
knew to the contrary? Why did the North Carolina 
claimants wait until after Jackson was dead and unable 
to prove his own statements before claiming him? He 
lived nearly thirty years after the appearance of Reid 
and Eaton's book and, so far as we have yet heard, 
that statement was never contradicted during those 
years. He publicly spoke of South Carolina as his na- 
tive State many times during those years, why did not 
some of those North Carolinians who knew better come 
out and tell the President he was mistaken about the 
place of his birth? They had daily papers then, the 
President's proclamation to the " Nullifiers" was read 
and discussed from one end of the American Continent 
to the other, why did not some North Carolinian catch 
that error and correct it? They had historians in North 
Carolina then, why were they 'sleeping? Because they 
could not find any witnesses then. These hearsay wit- 
nesses always crop up after an unreasonable time has 
elapsed, and they never bring any contemporary docu- 
ments with them to put in evidence. 

The next biographer of credibility was Colonel (af- 
terwards General) James Gadsden, who, about 1824, 
published a series of sketches of Jackson in The 
Charleston Mercury. They were reprinted in pamph- 
let form in Charleston in 1824 and entitled " Sketches 
of the Life and Public Services of General Andrew 
Jackson." Colonel Gadsden had been in the army, m 
Florida and elsewhere, with General Jackson and had 

411 



APPENDIX 

discussed the General's personal history with him Pfi r- 
jiaps even more closely than either Reid or Eaton had 
done. He was an accomplished engineer and was fa- 
miliar with the chartography of his own State. He 
tells us that Jackson was a native of South Carolina and 
" was born on the fifteenth of March, 1767, at the Wax- 
haw settlement, about forty-five miles above Camden ; 
and was the youngest of three sons." Of Jackson he 
also says : 

" He was severely wounded by a British ofiRcer for indignantly 
refusing to clean his shoes, and was confined as a prisoner, 
with many others, in the district gaol at the battle of Camden. 
With a penknife he cut a hole through the shutter, which was 
purposely closed by order of a British officer, that he might 
not be a spectator of the action; and at an interval of forty 
years he has been heard to describe the relative positions of the 
contending armies and the character of the surrounding ground 
vyith a minuteness demonstrating the accuracy of his recollec- 
tion and the nicety of even his juvenile observations." 

That confirms what was said above about Jackson. 
He was a careful and accurate man. He knew all 
about where he was born and told his friends and the 
world that it was in South Carolina. And his word and 
his memory have never been disputed, so far as we have 
been informed, by the direct testimony of any one else 
who was present at his birth. Colonel Gadsden knew 
in 1824 that it was commonly accepted in the Waxhaw 
settlement in Lancaster District that Jackson was born 
at a certain spot to the left of the public road just north 
of Waxhaw Creek in South Carolina; others have left 
contemporary printed evidence to the same effect. Why 
did not some North Carolinian of Mecklenburg County, 
or of Anson County, come out then and correct it? 
Why did the North Carolinians wait over thirty years, 
until every single contemporary witness was dead, and 
then try to controvert contemporary witnesses by hear- 
say evidence? Why trust to the treacherous memories 
of hearsay witnesses whose evidence is nothing but 
vague impression and pure guesswork? 

412 



APPENDIX 

In 1834 a biography of Jackson, by William Cobbett, y 
appeared. This biography also credits him to South 
Carolina. This gave additional publicity to the claim. 
The North Carolinians of that day must have been 
less intelligent than their children. With publica- 
tion after publication crediting Jackson to South Caro- 
lina not one of them could discover the error and 
correct it. It remained for their children to find it 
out after they were all dead, and also after Jackson 
was dead. 

Jackson's next important biographer was Amos Ken- 
dall of Kentucky. He was one of Jackson's closest 
personal friends. In fact, he was credited by Jackson's 
political opponents during Jackson's occupation of the 
office of President with being the "power behind the 
throne," and was a member of the little coterie of Jack- 
son's personal friends and advisers contemptuously re- 
ferred to as the " Kitchen Cabinet." His biography 
was published in 1843, and he also credited Jackson to 
South Carolina, and published a map fixing the spot in 
South Carolina. This work might almost be correctly 
termed an autobiography. Why was Kendall's state-i 
ment not disputed at the time? Because Jackson was! 
still alive and able to prove its correctness, and the 
time was still not far enough off from the date of 
happening for interest in the matter to have died out. 
It is only after a time has elapsed, after an incident is 
closed and interest has died out, that some dreamer or 
guesser revives it in an effort to set up new claims to 
the hero of the incident. 

General Jackson died at "The Hermitage," near 
Nashville, June 8, 1845, and on the morning of Tues- 
day, June 17, The Charleston Courier editorially an- 
nounced his death. 

The next day the same paper published a sketch of 
his life, the opening sentence being : 

"Andrew Jackson was born of Irish parents, on the 15th I 
March, 1767, at the Waxhaw settlement, about jortyjiiiles J 
above Camden, in this State." 

413 
4 



APPENDIX 

On June 27, 1845, George Bancroft, the great his- 
torian, delivered an oration on Jackson in Washington, 
which was pubHshed in Charleston in the same year 
under the title : " Funeral Oration on the Death of 
General Andrew Jackson," in which he said: 

" South Carolina gave a birth-place to Andrew Jackson. On 
its remote frontier, far up on the forest-clad banks of the Ca- 
tawba, in a region where the settlers were just beginning to 
cluster, his eye first saw the light." 

Here was more publicity. Why were these state- 
ments not disputed? Because there was no evidence to 
controvert them. 

The next evidence we have to corroborate Jackson is 
an original document from the archives of the State 
of South Carolina, as follows : 

"The special committee to whom was referred the Letter of 
his Excellency Governor Geddes relating to a Bust of Gen- 
eral Andrew Jackson, presented by James Thonaldson, for the 
Legislative Library, beg leave to Report, That while they ac- 
knowledge the pleasure with which they have received this 
present from the gentleman who gave it, they cannot refrain 
from availing themselves of this opportunity, to express their 
sense of the high merit, and inestimable services, of that In- 
dividual, who has identified the heroism of Carolina with 
American greatness. If our own State has been tardy in its 
expression of gratitude to the Hero of Orleans, it is not be- 
cause we have not cherished his character or gloried in his 
achievements. We have dwelt with delight on his splendid 
career^ and while we have seen with unusual pride, a son of 
Carolina, with no friend but his merit, and no guide but his 
genius, literally cutting with his sword the road to his great- 
ness. We have exulted at his lofty position in a variety of 
scenes associated with the finest developments of the national 
Character. The malignant treachery of the savage, the in- 
sidious ambition of Great Britain, the high courage, unyielding 
patriotism, and enthusiastic self-devotion of our Western Breth- 
ren, all furnished the occasions of his virtue, and the proof 
of his_ merit. He guided the courage, and enlightened the 
patriotism, and shared in the devotion of our friends — his 
name, with the savage, is the power of the nation — he has 
struck the death blow to the daring and dangerous scheme of 
our natural enemies. With so many themes of admiration, and 
causes of gratitude, in the history of the General, we as Caro- 

414 



APPENDIX 

linians have a still more happy reason for gratulation, that he, 
whose nativity has been the cause of rivalry for contending 
States, is acknowledged as our own — Your Committee respect- 
fully recommend — that the Bust of Genl. Jackson be kept in 
the Library subject to such arrangements, for preserving it, as 
the Librarian may think proper 

" David Ramsay — 

" Chairman." 

This report is endorsed: 

" Report of the Special Committee to whom was referred a 
Letter of Gov. Geddes relating to a Bust of Genl Jackson. 
" In the House of Representatives 

" Dec. 19 : 1820 
" Resolved that the House do adopt the Report. Ordd. that 
it be printed with the Acts &c: of the present session — 

" R Anderson 

" C. H. R. 
" Agreed to 

" To be printed Acts" 



There is one very significant passage in that report. 
It is where the committee says that there is " a still 
more happy reason for gratulation, that he, whose na- 
tivity has been the cause of rivalry for contending 
States, is acknowledged as our own." Of course he 
was so acknowledged. He knew it, and all of his old 
neighbors of the Waxhaw settlement knew it. There 
/ were many alive to prove it, and so none denied it — 
\none that we can find any contemporary statements 
from. Bartlett Jones and R. M. Crocket then repre- 
sented Lancaster District in the House and John Mont- 
gomery in the Senate. Why did they sit there and 
allow that report to go unchallenged if their constitu- 
ents of the Waxhaw settlement and their neighbors of 
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, all knew the 
spot where Jackson was born to be in North Caro- 
lina? Those three men were much the seniors of any 
of those who in later years gave hearsay evidence to 
disprove what Jackson and his friends and old neigh- 
bors had said in 1820. By their silence they have given 
us much better evidence than some who have com? 
after them have given by much talk. 

415 



APPENDIX 

Then why did Thonaldson present the bust to South 
CaroHna? Why not to North CaroHna? And why did 
not North CaroHna claim it, if it was to be given to 
Jackson's native State? Because at that time Jackson 
was " acknowledged as our own." 

The report, adopted as above, was acted on in the 
House, was spread upon the Journal, and was published 
in " Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of 
the State of South Carolina," passed in December, 1820. 
(Columbia, 1821.) It was thus given considerable pub- 
licity, and why its significant statement was not chal- 
lenged — if incorrect — passeth all understanding. The 
committee that made the report consisted of David 
Ramsay, John Boykin, Sr., and Christopher P. Pegues. 
Mr. Boykin was from Kershaw District, which adjoined 
Lancaster District. He knew the people of that district, 
and he doubtless had often discussed Andrew Jackson 
with them, for that distinguished character had been 
a national figure for many years, and his achievements 
in the Southwest and in Florida had just brought him 
additional fame, and his old neighbors, many of whom 
could testify of their personal knowledge as to the time 
and exact place of his birth, were doubtless discussing 
every phase of his career in South Carolina, just as 
people are discussing to-day the birthplaces of distin- 
guished Americans now in the public eye. And with 
Jackson himself alive to talk and many of his old neigh- 
bors alive to confirm or correct him, it seems much 
more likely that this committee would have gotten its 
facts better than the man who wanted to get them 
nearly forty years later, and Mr. Boykin would hardly 
have sanctioned such a direct statement at that time 
in a public document unless the statement could be 
verified. 

The next evidence offered is that of J. Boykin, a dis- 
tinguished surveyor of that section of South Carolina 
which embraces the Waxhaw settlement. About 1820 
Mr. Boykin surveyed Lancaster District under a con- 
tract with the State of South Carolina. In 1820 he 
prepared a map of the district from his survey. On 

416 




BUST OF ANDREW JACKmjN liY IIIRAM POWERS IN THE METROPOLITAN 
MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK 



APPENDIX 

that map Mr. Boykin very distinctly locates " Gen'. A. 
Jackson's Birth Place." The map was engraved for 
Mills's " Atlas of South Carolina," which was pub- 
lished in 1825. That map alone should outweigh every 
scrap of contradictory evidence that has been offered. 
But it is not claimed that the testimony of the map 
is conclusive. It is simply strongly corroborative evi- 
dence of the correctness of Jackson's statements as to 
his own birthplace — much clearer and stronger than 
any evidence that contradicts Jackson. The accuracy 
and correctness of Boykin's map is confirmed by a map 
delineated in Charleston in 1820 by " Eugene Reilly, 
Surveyor and Engineer." This map is in the custody 
of the Historical Commission of South Carolina at 
Columbia. It does not show from whose survey Mr. 
Reilly delineated it, but its lines all agree with Boy- 
kin's map. It contains some landmarks that are not on 
Boykin's, while Boykin's contains some that are not on 
it, but it very distinctly locates " Gen' : Jackson's Birth- 
place" exactly where Boykin locates it. 

Boykin was from the adjoining district of Kershaw; 
both Lancaster and Kershaw had previously belonged 
to Camden District, and Camden was the district seat, 
or Court-House town, and all conveyances, wills, or 
other papers respecting lands had to be recorded there; 
Boykin made surveys throughout the whole district, 
and he was as familiar with the lands and people of 
the district as the average country physician is with 
the family affairs of the average family in which he 
practises his profession ; he had every opportunity to 
learn from the people of the Waxhaw settlement, 
among whom he must have worked for several weeks 
when making his survey, and among whom he often 
worked professionally, the exact house in which Jack- 
son was born, and he had his instruments to guide him 
in detemiining the geographical position of that house. 
Again, he had the advantage of numerous boundary- 
line surveys that had been started as early as 1764 and 
had only terminated in 1815. Those surveys located 
landmarks which enabled Boykin to work with but the 
27 417 



APPENDIX 

slightest chance of mistake ; he had, doubtless, the use 
of many of the early plats of the locality and he had 
probably made others himself of lands in that vicinity, 
and his chances of being mistaken as to the location of 
so historic a house as that in which so famous a man — 
and one whose fame had been so recently added to — 
as General Andrew Jackson had been bom w-ere much 
smaller than those of a person gathering hearsay evi- 
dence from uneducated witnesses forty years later. Be- 
sides all of that, Boykin was a very careful man. The 
late James D. jMcIlwain, who surveyed lands in Lan- 
caster District for generations and was himself looked 
upon as an exceedingly accurate surveyor, has often 
been heard to say that when he could get one of Boy- 
kin's plats he was sure to have an easy time, and the 
writer of this article w^as told recently by a young sur- 
veyor, who had surveyed over the ver}^ territory where 
Boykin locates Jackson's birthplace, that when he could 
not get a plat of former surveys he consulted the maps 
in Mills's "Atlas" and always found them accurate. The 
same surveyor told the writer that when surveying in 
the W'axhaw settlement a few years ago he had had 
pointed out to him the spot whereon the house had 
stood in which it was alleged that Jackson was born ; 
that it is now marked by only such signs as one usually 
finds on the spot on which an old house has stood, — 
crumbled clay, broken pottery, a dirt mound or two, and 
rank weeds, — and that he knows from what his in- 
struments showed him as to boundary lines and land- 
marks that that spot is in South Carolina. 

In 1858 one Colonel Davenport, of Virginia, made 
the claim that Jackson was born in Virginia, and re- 
cently this claim has been revived and proved to the 
satisfaction of those who desire to believe the story in 
preference to reliable evidence. At the time that Colonel 
Davenport discovered that an Andrew Jackson had been 
born in Virginia about the time that the greatest of 
all Andrew Jacksons was born in South Carolina, and 
published his discover}- to the world, Tlie Lancaster 
Ledger had this to say with regard to the claim: 

418 



APPENDIX 

" The family of Jackson was Scotch,* and emigrated at an 
early period to the North of Ireland. Andrew Jackson, the 
father of General Jackson, with his sons, Hugh and Robert, 
left Ireland and landed in Charleston in 1765, and removed to 
the Waxhaws, there to reside. Major Robert Crawford, with 
others of the Crawford family, came over with him and like- 
wise settled in the Waxhaws. Andrew Jackson died shortly 
after his arrival in this country, and just before the birth of his 
son, Andrew. The latter was born on the fifteenth day of 
March, 1767. 

" The Jacksons were in rather indigent circumstances, but 
Major Crawford was a wealthy man, and by the marriage of 
one of his brothers, with the sister of Andrew Jackson's (sr.) 
wife's sister, was somewhat of a family connexion, and the 
firm and undeviating friend of the Jacksons. From the best 
information we can gather, the mother of General Jackson had 
left the place where her husband first settled, and at the time 
of the birth of her son Andrew was living on a place belong- 
ing to Major Crawford, and very near to his place of resi- 
dence. In a very short time after that event — the birth of 
Andrew — Major Crawford took her to his own house, and it 
was her home until her death. 

" Major Crawford took good care of his protege, and was 
repaid by a filial affection that died only when the old hero 
himself ceased to exist. The descendants of Major Crawford 
are numerous, and the tradition of the family, as to the birth- 
place of Jackson, is as we have above related, '^here are nu- 
merous relatives of General Jackson now living in this District 
— some of them second cousins — and the tradition among them 
is that General Jackson was born in the Waxhaws. This tradi- 
tion is not vague and uncertain; it is positive, direct, and is 
founded upon information handed down from parents to their 
children. There are men and women, now here, and many of 
them, who have conversed with persons of undoubted veracity, 
who were present at the birth of General Jackson. Some of 
those who were present were near relatives, and gave, some 
vears ago, their testimony to the fact that their distinguished 
kinsman was born in the Waxhaws. All the above can be 
verified, if necessary, by men and women among us of unques- 
tioned characters. 

" This is sufficient, we think, to rebut the claim of Colonel 
Davenport; but there is further testimony. We refer to the 
several lives of Jackson, particularly to that of Kendall. We 
believe it was never completed, but several numbers were pub- 
lished. This work was dictated by General Jackson himself— 
is, in fact, an autobiography— and is authentic. In it will be/ 



* An early statement of this absurd claim that Jackson was 

not pure Irish. — C. T. B. 

419 




APPENDIX 

\found a statement of the birth of Jackson substantially the 
'same as above. Also a map of the Waxhaw settlement, on 
which is marked ' Jackson's birthplace,' accompanies the first 
number. 

" But the testimony rests not here. Many years ago, it was 
mooted whether General Jackson was born in this State, or 
just over the line in North Carolina. Colonel James H. Wither- 
spoon, then a prominent citizen of this District and intimate 
friend of Jackson's, addressed to him a letter of inquiry as 
to his birthplace. The reply of General Jackson was full and 
particular. He states that he was born in the Waxhaws in 
South Carolina, on a place belonging to Major Crawford. This 
letter is now in the hands of James H. Witherspoon, Esq., son 
of the late Colonel James H. Witherspoon, to whom it was ad- 
dressed. Unfortunately, Mr. Witherspoon is on a summer tour 
among the highlands, and we are consequently deprived of the 
pleasure of laying it before our readers. 

" It is, we think, well established, if General Jackson is to 
be believed, that he was born in the Waxhaws. A man ought 
to know where he was born. Doubtless General Jackson was, 
time and again, informed by fiTs""rnother and friend. Major 
Crawford, where he was born and the exact spot was pointed 
out to him. He was well-nigh grown before he left the Wax- 
haws, and must have been well informed of its locality. 

' In conclusion, we will mention that Martin P. Crawford, 
Esq., the grandson of Major Robert Crawford, is now the 
owner of an old negro woman, who was a playmate of Jack- 
son's in early childhood. Phillis is upwards of ninety years 
old, and can point the exact spot on which stood the house in 
which General Jackson was born." — The Charleston Mercury, 
Saturday, August 21, 1858. ' 

Notwithstanding such direct statements from Jack- 
son and such unanimity among his biographers, so late 
as i860 another biography was published in which the 
most clumsy efforts were made to prove that Jackson 
was born in North Carolina instead of in South Caro- 
lina. The unskilled workman who prepared this, the 
most pretentious life of Jackson (three volumes) that 
has yet appeared, was James Parton, and from this 
work one would really judge that he had been trained 
up in the particular school of historians of which Mason 
L. Weems had been a shining example. His patroniz- 
ing superiority and his exclusive declarations character- 
ize him as a historian who seeks, not for the truth, but 
to glorify those of his political faith and belittle those 

420 



APPENDIX 

of opposing faiths.* Parton says (p. 52) : " General 
Jackson always supposed himself to be a native of 
South Carolina," ..." but it is as certain as any fact 
of the kind can be that he was mistaken." And then 
he furnishes the evidence upon which he bases his con- 
clusion that Jackson was boni in North Carolina, and, 
although that evidence is all hearsay, and of the flim- 
siest character, yet it rather corroborates than contra- 
dicts the evidence given by Jackson and the two sep- 
arate maps prepared in 1820 by Reilly and Boykin. 
Although this mass of flimsy evidence has all been 
given by Parton to prove that Jackson was born at 
the house of his uncle-in-law, George McKemey, and 
that that house was in North Carolina, it not only does 
not prove either proposition, but, taken in conjunction 
with the maps in evidence and carefully compared there- 
with, strengthens Jackson's assertion that he was born 
in South Carolina. 

Parton tells us that Jackson's father, Andrew Jack- 
son, and some neighbors named Crawford came from 
Ireland to Charles Town in 1765 and pushed up 
through the Province to the Waxhaw settlement; that 
the Crawfords settled on Waxhaw Creek ; that Andrew 

Jackson settled on Twelve Mile Creek, seven miles 

away ; that the place was known as " Pleasant Grove 
Camp Ground"! and that the particular land once oc- 
cupied by the father of General Jackson was still 
pointed out by the old people of the neighborhood, and 
that it was in what is now Union County, North Car- 
olina ; that settler Jackson died in the spring of 1767; 
that his body was buried in the old Waxhaw church- 
vard ; that his bereaved family did not return to Twelve 
Mile Creek, "but went from the churchyard to the 



* While I agree with Mr. Salley as to Jackson's birthplace, 
and to that extent disagree with Parton, I am compelled to 
record an emphatic dissent from his estimate of Parton's book 
as a whole. — C. T. B. ^, . j 

tit was not so known in 1765. That is a modern name. 
Camp-meetings and camp-grounds were unknown m South Car- 
olina in 1765. — A. S. S., Jr. 

421 



l> 



APPENDIX 

house, not far off, of one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers-^ 
in-law, George McKemey by name," and that there, 
a few nights later, the son, Andrew Jackson, was born, 
March 15, 1767, and that this home of McKemey 's 
.was in Union County, North Carolina. In substantia- 
tion of these statements he offers the following evi- 
dence, gathered by General S. E. Walkup, of Union 
County, N. C. : 

Benjamin Massey, "an old resident of the vicinity," says 
he heard Mrs. Lathan, who claimed to have been present at the 
birth of Jackson, say : " That she was about seven years older 
than Andrew Jackson ; that when the father of Andrew Jack- 
son died Mrs. Jackson left home and came to her brother-in- 
law's, Mr. McCamie's, previous to the birth of Andrew ; that 
after living at Mr. McCamie's awhile, Andrew was born, and 
she was present at his birth ; as soon as Mrs. Jackson was 
restored to health and strength she came to Mr. James Craw- 
ford's, in South Carolina, and there remained." 

Observe that Mr. Massey does not say McKemey's 

house was in North Carolina, nor does he say that Mrs. 

'; Lathan said it was. But Mr. Massey says that after 

\ Mrs. Jackson had lived at McKemey's " awhile" An- 

"drew was born. On that point he does not agree with 

other witnesses, who say a day or two, at most. He 

knew nothing of his own knowledge, and his statements 

were based on a conversation had years before with an 

old lady who was but seven years old when Jackson 

was born. 

John Carnes says: "Mrs. Leslie, the aunt of General 
Jackson, has often told me that General Jackson was born at 
George McCamie's, in North Carohna, and that his mother, 
soon after his birth, moved over to James Crawford's, in South 
Carolina ; and I think she told me she was present at his birth, 
but at any rate, she knew well he was born at McCamie's." 

This witness displayed the uncertainty which must 
necessarily come of trying to testify as to what one has 
heard over " thirty-five years before." He was not 
certain Mrs. Leslie had said she was present, but he 

422 



APPENDIX 

was certain that she had said Jackson was born in 
McKemey's house in North Carohna and that his mother 
afterwards " moved over to James Crawford's, in South 
CaroHna." It is hardly hkely that Mrs. LesHe ever 
knew whether McKemey's house was in North Caro- 
Hna or South Carohna, and it is ahnost a certainty that 
she did not know in which province it stood at the 
time of Jackson's birth, for at that time no Hne liad 
ever been run out between the provinces at the point 
where Jackson was born. It was run out five years 
later, but not finally agreed upon until the ratification in 
1813 of a convention entered into between commis- 
sioners on the part of both States, concluded September 
4, 18 13, and that line put the spot whereon Jackson 
said he was born in South Carolina. 

Massey says that Mrs. Lathan told him that Mrs. 
Jackson " came to James Crawford's in South Caro- 
lina, and there remained." Carnes says Mrs. Leslie 
told him that Mrs. Jackson " moved over to James 
Crawford's, in South Carolina." General Jackson said 
he was born on a place belonging to Robert Crawford 
and near said Robert Crawford's home. The land rec- 
ords of South Carolina show that in 1775 six hundred 
and fifty acres of land on Waxhaw Creek, running back 
to the North Carolina line, were laid out to Robert 
Crawford by order of the surveyor-general of South 
Carolina and the plat thereof recited that this tract 
had been previously granted to Andrew Pickens by 
the Governor of North Carolina. This shows that the 
people of the neighborhood did not know where the line 
was until after 1772, and Pickens had been claiming 
under one province and Crawford under another. This 
tract covers the point marked on the maps of Boykin, 
Reilly, and Kendall as Jackson's birthplace, and on the 
official map of the survey made in 1813, agreeable to 
the convention entered into by the commissioners of 
the two States, July 11, 1808, and subsequently rati- 
fied, this place is marked " R. Crawford's." Mills's 
map marks the place on Waxhaw Creek " John Craw- 
ford" and the South Carolina land records show no 

423 



APPENDIX 

James Crawford holding- lands in that vicinity prior to 
,'1785. That these witnesses or General Walkup df 

Parton made a slip as to the first name of Jackson's 
1 foster-father is quite evident. But to continue with 
' Parton's witnesses : 



James Faulkner, "second cousin of Gen. Jackson," says: 
"That old Mr. Jackson died before the birth of his son. Gen- 
eral Jackson, and that his widow, Mrs. Jackson, was quite poor, 
and moved from her residence on Twelve Mile Creek, North 
Carolina, to live with her relations on Waxhaw Creek, and 
while on her way there she stopped with her sister, Mrs. 
McCamie, in North Carolina, and was there dehvered of 
Andrew, afterwards President of the United States ; that he 
learned this from various old persons, and particularly heard 
his aunt, Sarah Lathen, often speak of it and assert that she 
was present at his, Jackson's, birth ; that she said her mother, 
Mrs. Leslie, was sent for on that occasion, and took her, Mrs. 
Lathen, then a small girl, about seven years of age, with her, 
and that she recollected well of going the near way through the 
fields to get there ; and that afterwards, when Mrs. Jackson 
became able to travel, she continued her trip to Mrs. Craw- 
ford's, and took her son Andrew with her, and there remained." 

John Lathan said that he had heard his mother, Mrs. Sarah 
Lathan, say often that Andrew Jackson was born at the house 
of George McKemey and that she was at the house at the time 
of his birth ; that his father had lived and died on Twelve Mile 
Creek in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and that soon 
after his death Mrs. Jackson left Twelve Mile Creek, North 
Carolina, to go to live with Mr. Crawford in Lancaster District, 
South Carolina ; that on her way she stopped at the house of 
George McKemey, who had married one of her sisters, and 
that while there she was taken sick and sent for another sister, 
Mrs. Sarah Leslie, mother of the said Mrs. Sarah Lathan, who , 
lived near McKemey's ; that she, then but seven years old, 
accompanied her mother across the fields, in the night, to her 
aunt's and so was present when Jackson was born ; that soon 
after Mrs. Jackson went on to Mr. Crawford's to live. 

Mr. Lathan, like Mr. Massey, does not assert that 
McKemey's house was in North Carolina, nor does he 
say that his mother said it was. The fact is, the boun- \ 
dary line w^s scarcely known to the people of the ] 

424 ■ f 



APPENDIX 

neighborhood at the time of Jackson's birth, and they 
knew it with no degree of certainty until after the sur- 
vey in 1813, by which it was finally fixed. 

Immediately after the complete separation of the 
provinces of North Carolina and South Carolina by 
royal authority in 1729 a dispute arose as to the boun- 
dary line, which did not finally terminate until the final 
ratification, by the General Assemblies of both States, 
of a convention concluded at Greenville, South Caro- 
lina, November 2, 18 15, between three commissioners 
from each of the two States. The first dispute was as 
to the southeastern portion of the line. After six or 
seven years of bickering the line was fixed by surveys 
made in 1735 and 1737. That part run in 1735 com- 
menced at the mouth of Little River, on the seashore, 
and extended in a northwest direction, sixty-four and 
a half miles, to a point two miles northwest of one of 
the branches of Pee Dee. In 1737 the line was ex- 
tended in the same direction twenty-two miles to a 
stake in a meadow, which was erroneously supposed 
to be at the point of intersection with the thirty-fifth 
degree of north latitude. This line was eighty-six miles 
and one hundred and seventy-four poles long, and this 
point was about eleven miles short of the thirty-fifth 
degree of north latitude to which the surveyors had been 
instructed to nm. A mark was set up there by a deputy 
surveyor, and although it temporarily robbed South 
Carolina of a strip about eleven miles wide by sixty-two 
miles long it Vv'as, nevertheless, officially agreed upon 
in 1772, and an equivalent was given to South Caro- 
lina farther north. In that strip lay the place upon 
which the North Carolinians allege that Jackson was 
born. So if it be admitted that the spot was east of the 
/ boundarv line agreed upon in 1772. he was nevertheless 
I born in what was then legally South Carohna territory. 
But it is not admitted that that spot was east of the 
line agreed upon in 1772. Jackson was born west of 
the line fixed in 1764 and agreed upon in 1772 and that 
has been the correct line ever since. 

In 1763 the Catawba Indian reservation was laid oft 

425 - ' 




APPENDIX 

by South Carolina and its eastern boundary was fixed 
as the boundary between the two provinces. This east- 
ern Hue's southern extremity was fixed, and marked by 
a gum, on Twelve Mile Creek. In 1764 surveyors were 
instructed to take up the line at the stake in the meadow 
fixed in 1737 and extend it westward along- the thirty - 
fifth degree to its intersection with the eastern boundary 
line of the Catawba reservation, but when they had run 
sixty-two miles they were unable to find that line. 
They then calculated and found that they were about 
eleven miles south of the thirty-fifth degree. They 
here set up a " Stone Corner by 2 Black Oak" and 
reported their trouble to Governor Bull, who directed 
that an imaginary line connecting this point marked 
by the stone with that marked by the gum should be 
recognized as the line until the matter should be ad- 
justed by the two provinces. The line was not staked 
out and Mouzon's map, published in 1775, makes the 
line and the public road coincide and both run north 
in a winding line. As a matter of fact, the road does 
not coincide with the boundary, as may be seen by ex- 
amining Boykin's map. 

In 1772 the line was taken up at the " Stone Cor- 
ner" of 1764 and carried on. The line to the gum 
was eight miles in length. Thus we see it took a 
. surveyor, or one perfectly familiar with the conditions, 

vto '^ay whether points along this little eight-mile line 

^ ,were in North Carolina or South Carolina. It is not 

^, reasonable to suppose that these simple country people 

/ living there knew upon which side of the line the little 

cabin in which Jackson was born stood. They knew 

the cabin and when the final surveys were made in 18 13 

.and the years just following they, no doubt, pointed it 
out, and our surveyors put it on their maps, and that is 
better evidence than that given by any old person who 
heard some other old person say that as a child she was 
there, or that he or she had heard someone else say 
that Jackson was born at George McKemey's in North 
Carolina. I am told by a former citizen of Lancaster 
that people living in the Waxhaws to-day consider the 

426 



APPENDIX 

public road the line and have told him so, and the maker 
of the statement accredited to " Thomas J. Cureton" 
evidently thought so. 

Thomas Faulkner testified to the same effect as John Lathan 
regarding what Mrs. Lathan had said about Jackson's birth- 
place, and he further testified that Mrs. Leshe had died about 
fifty years before ; that Mrs. Lathan, her daughter, had died 
thirty-five years before and that he himself was at the time of 
making his statement seventy years of age and had resided 
since his birth "in Lancaster District, South Carolina, near 
Craigsville postoiSce, and about two miles from the old Wax- 
haw Church." 

His testimony would not be admissible in court and 
should be excluded here on the ground that too much 
time had elapsed between statements to warrant relia- 
ble testimony, but, as it does not prove that Jackson's 
birthplace was in North Carolina, let it pass. 

Samuel McWhorter, Jane Wilson, and others testified to the 
same effect. James D. Craig, formerly a resident of Wax- 
haw, but at the time of making his contribution to Walkup's 
evidence a resident of Mississippi, stated that he had once 
heard old James Faulkner say that once while sleeping with 
Andrew Jackson at the McKemey house, Jackson told him that 
he was born in that house ; that he had heard Mrs. Cousar, an 
old lady, long a near neighbor of McKemey, say that she 
remembered perfectly the night of Jackson's birth, as she had 
been sent for to assist ; that he had heard Charles Findly, 
deceased, say that he "assisted in hauHng" the corpse of 
Andrew Jackson from his house on Twelve Mile Creek to the 
Waxhaw churchyard and in interring it there, and that, after 
the funeral, he had conveyed Mrs. Jackson and her boys to the 
house of George McKemey, where, soon after, Andrew was 
born. 

The witness does not say that Faulkner told him in 
which State the house was located in which he and 
Jackson had slept together and in which Jackson had 
said he was born; he does not say that Faulkner told 
him that the house was in North Carolina ; he does not 
say that Mrs. Cousar said it was in North Carolina ; he 

427 




APPENDIX 

does not say that Findly said so either, nor does he say 
anything of his own knowledge on the subject. The 
fact is, he had a very vague idea about the whole matter 
and knew nothing positively. 

Parton remarks : ' ' This testimony leaves no reasonable 

doubt that the birth took place at the house of McKemey. 

pior is there the least difficulty in finding the precise spot where 

^ that house stood. The spot is as well known to the people of 

#" the neighborhood as the City Hall is to the inhabitants of New 

York." 

There is a " reasonable doubt " as to the correctness 
of the evidence to the effect that Jackson was born in 
McKemey's house, but it has not been proven where 
McKemey's house was located, and that makes it pos- 
sibly true that Jackson was born in the house of George 
McKemey. Such evidence uncorroborated would be 
worthless in court and is still equally as worthless in 
historical investigation. The memory of man is treach- 
erous even for short periods, especially as to hearsay, 
but when it comes to accepting a narrative of an event 
that occurred in 1767 from someone not born until 
thirty or forty years thereafter, who got it over thirty- 
five years before from another who was but seven years 
old when the event occurred, there is so much latitude 
for slips of memory (and they are so very apt to 
occur!) that a judiciouc and experienced truthseeker 
simply cannot accept it unless it is properly corrobor- 
ated. General Walkup would not have gone into a 
court-house and rested a case on such evidence as he 
gathered for Parton, for it would not have been admis- 
sible in law, but he rests a question of history on it and 
attempts therewith to detract from Jackson's knowl- 
edge of his own history. And General Walkup's spell- 
ing of the names of his witnesses is an evidence that 
he was not so familiar with the people of the Waxhaw 
vicinity as Parton would have it appear. He writes 
" McCamie" when Parton himself says he found the 
family spelling the name McKemey on tombstones, and 
he writes " Lathen" for Lathan. There can be no doubt 

428 



APPENDIX 

that " the people of the neighborhood " for many years 
after Jackson's birth knew the spot as well as the New 
Yorker knows the location of the City Hall, but that 
was when the house was standing and Jackson was 
alive and his name a household word to remind them, 
and that was when Boykin surveyed over the coun- 
try and carefully marked the houses and roads and 
streams, and took particular pains to mark on his map 
so historic a spot as the birthplace of a general of the 
United States army who had so lately and repeatedly 
distinguished himself, and the old neighbors of whom 
were undoubtedly at that moment telling all they knew 
about him. 

But at the time, over thirty years later, that General 
Walkup gathered his evidence, the house was gone, and 
the spot upon which it had stood was forgotten, and in 
the attempt to resurrect and recover the spot, General 
Walkup and Biographer Parton failed to avail them- 
selves of the early maps, and simply depended upon 
the imperfect traditions of some of the people of the 
neighborhood, and thereby failed to prove their propo- 
sitions. 

With so many of Jackson's older neighbors or con- 
temporaries all around, with all of the old land plats of 
the neighborhood at his service, with a thorough pro- 
fessional knowledge of the whole country around and 
with his scientific instruments to guide him. Boykin was 
far more apt to know more about the location of Jack- 
son's birthplace, or of McKemey's house, than men who 
had thirty or forty years later to call back their mem- 
ories thirty or forty years in order to recall what they 
had heard. And when we take into consideration the 
fact that Jackson and the Boykins were all better edu- 
cated and better informed persons than any one of 
those who gave evidence to controvert theirs it does 
seem that theirs is the better evidence. Jackson knew 
the house he was born in. James D. Craig says old 
James Faulkner told him that Jackson told him, while 
sleeping in McKemey's house, that he was born in that 
house. If that is true, then Jackson knew that house 

429 



\ 
\ 



APPENDIX 

was in South Carolina, or he would never have said he 
was born in South Carolina. He did not leave South 
Carolina until after he had been admitted to the bar, 
and must have known the location of the line run out in 
1772, which is still the line and has never changed a 
particle. Parton tells us that, after the burial of her 
husband, Mrs. Jackson " went from the church-yard 
to the house, not far off," of George McKemey. If 
George McKemey's house was anywhere near the 
church necessarily it was in South Carolina, for the 
church decidedly is in South Carolina. Again, Massey, 
" an old resident of the vicinity," does not say that 
McKemey's house was in North Carolina, because to 
be in his " vicinity" would bring it in South Carolina. 
All of the maps cited show Massey 's house some dis- 
tance to the west of the line. Massey says Mrs. Lathan 
said that after Jackson's birth, his mother went to live 
with James Crawford, " in South Carolina." The maps 
show Jackson's birthplace near " John Crawford's," in 
South Carolina. Whose house was that so marked? 
Not the old Andrew Jackson house. Not John Craw- 
ford's. James Faulkner says the Crawfords lived on 
Waxhaw Creek. The maps show John Crawford's 
there. Jackson's birthplace is located off the creek. 
The map of the officially agreed upon boundary shows 
Robert Crawford as the owner in 1813 of the house 
named by Boykin in 1820 as Jackson's birthplace. 
Crawford's house was in South Carolina and so was 
McKemey's, if Jackson was born in it. We know that 
Robert Crawford was granted the land where Boykin 
and Reilly mark Jackson's birthplace, and he must have 
owned the house in which McKemey lived at the time of 
Jackson's birth, if it be true that Jackson was born at 
McKemey's, and that house in my opinion (and Jack- 
son's) stood right where Boykin, Reilly, and Kendall 
put it. 

Parton publishes an undated affidavit of Thomas Cureton to 
prove that the McKemey h'ouse was in North Carolina, in which 
Cureton said that he was ' ' about seventy-five years of age, * ' 

430 



APPENDIX 

that his father, James Cureton, had come to the Waxhaw set- 
tlement "about seventy-three years" before, when deponent 
was "about one year old;" that his elder brother, Jeremiah 
Cureton, bought the George McKemey place "some time after 
he came to this county" (Union County, North Carolina ?) about 
1796, and settled in the same house where George McKemey 
had lived ; that he ' ' remained there a few years, ' ' and moved 
to the place, "where Wilham J. Cureton" was living at the 
time of this deposition ; that he knew the George McKemey 
place well and that it lay in North Carolina, "about a quarter 
of a mile east of the public road, leading from Lancaster Court 
House, South Carolina, to Charlotte, North Carolina, and to 
the right of said road as you travel north," a little east of 
south from Cureton' s Pond, on said public road, and a little 
over a quarter of a mile from said pond ; that his brother, 
Jeremiah Cureton, always called that the McKemey house 
and was of opinion, from information derived from old Mrs. 
Molly Cousar, that Andrew Jackson was "born at the George 
McCamie place;" that the "Leslie houses lay about half a 
mile in a southern direction from the McCamie house, and 
north. of Waxhaw Creek, and east of the pubhc road," and 
that^he himself had "lived for the last seventy-two or three 
years within three or four miles of the McCamie place." 

' S<^' the whole idea about Cureton's place being 
Jackson's birthplace is based on a feeble old man's 
, /.recollection of his dead brother's " opinion^ from 
' information derived from old Mrs. Molly Cousar"? The 
witness does not say that Mrs. Cousar said Jackson was 
born at McKemey's, nor does he say that Mrs. Cousar 
said the place of birth was in North Carolina. That 
was his brother's " opinion " from his conversation with 
Mrs. Cousar, who was probably too old to give intelli- 
gent testimony, and too much time had elapsed for 
Thomas Cureton to have a clear recollection of what 
his brother said she said. His memory was probably 
much guided in the Walkup direction by suggestions. 
He does not say that his elder brother, Jeremiah, who 
did not come to the Waxhaws until over twenty-five 
years after Jackson's birth, knew that his place in 
North Carolina was the birthplace of Jackson. He 
simply says his brother, Jeremiah, always "called" 
that the McKemey house. 

431 



APPENDIX 

Mr. Cureton's mind was either enfeebled by age when 
he made that affidavit, or else he was not a careful man, 
and, therefore, not a good witness. He did not know 
his own exact age. He made " about seventy-three" 
and " about one" years " about seventy-five." He 
seemed very accurate as to places and locations, and 
Vvery inaccurate about figures and names, but bear in 
mind that General Walkup, a North Carolinian, took his 
deposition and that there was no one to cross-examine 
him to test his memory or knowledge of side lights. His 
testimony cannot possibly be as good as that of Jack- 
son and the Boykins. 

"Thomas J. Cureton," son of Jeremiah Cureton, stated that 
he was the then owner of the place that had formerly belonged 
to McKemey and that he had received it from his father and 
that it was in Union County, North Carolina (formerly a part 
of Mecklenburg County) ; that it was "a little over a quarter 
of a mile southeast of what is called Cureton' s Pond, and about 
a quarter of a mile east of the State line, and the public road 
leading from Lancaster Court House, South Carolina, to Char- 
lotte, North Carolina, and about one and a half miles north of 
Waxhaw Creek;" that he had "the old land papers" (chain 
of title) for the tract, which was patented to John McCane, 
1 76 1, upon a survey dated 8th September, 1757 ; conveyed by 
McCane to Repentence Townsend, loth April, 1761, and by 
Townsend to George McCamie, 3d January, 1766, and by 
George McCamie to Thomas Crawford, 1792 ; and by Crawford 
and wife, Elizabeth, to Jeremiah Cureton, 23d July, 1796, and 
by Jeremiah Cureton to said Thomas L. Cureton ; that his 
father, said Jeremiah Cureton, came from Virginia to Roanoke, 
North Carolina, "and from there to Waxhaws, South Carolina, 
and purchased the McCamie place, where he lived a few years, 
and then removed to place where I now reside in Lancaster 
district. South Carolina, where he remained until his death in 
1 847 ; being then eighty -four years of age. ' ' 

That Parton or Walkup was very careless is attested 
by the fact that the Union records show that Jeremiah 
Cureton sold this place to William J. Cureton, not 
" Thomas L.," after 1842, and that the above state- 
ment was made by William J. Cureton, not " Thomas 
J. Cureton." The writer has a letter from Thomas J. 

432 



APPENDIX 

Cureton denying that he ever made any statement to 
Walkup or Parton. 

It is admitted that this place did once belong to 
George McKemey, and that it is in Union County, 
North Carolina, but does that prove that McKemey, 
was living on it wdien Andrew Jackson was born and 
that Jackson was born there? Isn't it cmite possible 
that McKemey was living in a cabin in SoutTilJaroTiiia 
when Jackson was born and that Jackson was born in 
that cabin ? That is much more likely than that Jackson 
did not know where he was born and in what State he 
was born and that Reilly and Boykin, with surveyors' 
notes before them and the evidence of living witnesses 
around them were wrong in locating a historic land- 
mark, and that Thonaldson was wrong in presenting 
his bust to South Carolina instead of North Carolina, 
and that the committee appointed to pass upon the 
matter — one of whom was from the same section and 
familiar with the country and the people — would felici- 
tate the House on the fact that Jackson was " acknowl- 
edged as our own," unless they knew it to be so. 

The fact is that General Walkup wanted to claim 
Jackson as a North Carolinian, and Mr. Cureton wanted 
to pose as the owner of Jackson's birthplace, and be- 
tween them they managed to gather some flimsy testi- 
mony, which was enough to persuade the unscientific 
Parton that " it is as certain as any fact of the kind can 
be" that Jackson " was mistaken" as to his own birth- 
place. If they had produced a contemporary Bible or 
church record, which definitely recorded that Jackson 
was born on a certain date at the residence of George 
McKemey in the Province of North Carolina (as we 
frequently find done in sections of South Carolina) 
we could accept it as conclusive, or if they had brought 
a statement made and signed by old Mrs. Leslie or 
Mrs. Cousar, or Mrs. Lathan, or by all of them during 
the lifetime of either or all of them, it would have 
been very strong, but what they have presented is ^ 
as bad as nothing, and the direct statement of Jack- 
son that he was born in South Carolina would have 
28 433 



APPENDIX 

been accepted in a court of law as evidence on the point, 
while a statement by one person that he had heard some- 
one else say thirty or forty years before that she had 
been present at Jackson's birth and that he was born 
in McKemey's house in North Carolina would not only 
not receive the same weight but would be rejected alto- 
gether. 

Let us see what the law on that point is: 

Greenleaf declares that birthplace is not provable by common 
repute. 

" By the English authorities, hearsay evidence is admissible 
to prove pedigree, but not the place of a child's birth." — Wil- 
mington vs. Burlington, 4 Pick. Massachusetts, 174. (See also 
Baintree vs. Hingham, i Pick. Massachusetts, 247 ; Adams vs. 
Swansea, 116 Massachusetts, 596.) 

" Hearsay evidence is admissible to prove pedigree, and the 
declarations of a deceased parent have been admitted to prove 
the time of a child's birth, but are rejected when offered to 
prove the place." — Shearer vs. Clay, i Litt. Kentucky, 260. 

Hearsay evidence, then, as to the declarations of 
even deceased parents as to the place of a child's birth 
will not be accepted in court. What would the court 
say if someone should come forward to testify that he 
had heard an old person say over thirty-five years be- 
fore that as a child of seven she knew of the birthplace 
of another child? 

Of the sort of evidence that Parton gives us Lord 
Langdale, M.R., says: 

" In cases where the whole evidence is traditionary, when it 
consists entirely of family reputation, or of statements of dec- 
larations made by persons who died long ago, it must be taken 
with such allowances, and also with such suspicions, as ought 
reasonably to be attached to it." 

Any one with experience in historical and genealogi- 
cal research work, under the guidance of the well- 
defined rules of the most scientific workers of the time, 
will agree that Lord Langdale's opinion will apply in 
history as well as in law. 

In the article in The Lancaster Ledger we have ex- 

434 



;> 
ji 



APPENDIX 

actly the sort of evidence that Parton has given us, only 
it is better than Parton's. It is more specific, and it 
harmonizes better with the acceptable evidence already 
produced. It also shows us that it all depends upon the 
viewpoint when any one goes out to gather evidence 
from hearsay, common repute, and tradition. General 
Walkup makes out, from conversations with the old 
people, that Jackson's birthplace was in North Carolina ; 
the writer in the Ledger, from similar conversations 
had about the same time with the same old people or 
other old people of the same community, is convinced 
that Jackson's birthplace was in South Carolina. The 
conclusion of the writer in the Ledger is no after- 
thought, for his article was published before Parton's 
book, and he discloses no knowledge of the fact that 
General Walkup was working along the same line for a 
different conclusion. And the fact that these two un- 
scientific investigators arrived at opposite conclusions 
about the same time, with practically the same evidence 
before them, is enough to convince one that the law is 
correct in excluding such evidence and that Lord Lang- 
dale made no mistake when he said such evidence " must a f"^" ^ 
be taken with such allowances, and also with such sus- {/ , j^ 
picions, as ought reasonably to be attached to it." , ' 

Perhaps if General Walkup and the Ledger writer 
could have gotten together with all their witnesses and 
with Jackson's letter to Colonel Witherspoon, and Ken- 
dall's map to submit to their scrutiny, they could have 
brought out enough to settle the matter in the minds of 
a competent jury. And with all of this evidence before 
them I feel confident that any impartial jury would have 
fixed the spot in South Carolina where the authentic 
and admissible evidence fixes it. 

Let us take the Ledgers evidence " with such allow- 
ances" ..." as ought reasonably to be attached to it" 
and also apply the same to Parton's evidence. The 
Ledger says that after the death of the elder Jackson 
Mrs. Jackson left the place where her husband had first 
settled and at the time of the birth of her son. Andrew, 
was " living on a place belonging to Major Crawford, 

435 






APPENDIX 

and very near to his place of residence." The boun- 
dary Hne map of 1813 fixes the same spot that Boykin 
and Reilly mark for Jackson's birthplace as Robert 
Crawford's property. The Ledger writer goes on to 
say that after the birth of Andrew the Jacksons went 
to live with Robert Crawford. Parton's account says 
almost the same thing, using James instead of Robert, 
showing, thereby, less accuracy. That makes the birth 
take place at the house of George McKemey, near 
Crawford's. Why could not George McKemey have 
been living on this place of Crawford's? General 
Walkup's witnesses had never taken the trouble to ques- 
tion the old people who were witnesses to the birth of 
Jackson as to the exact location of the house wherein 
they said he was born. They only said it was near 
Crawford's, and the North Carolina place that 
McKemey owned was at least a mile from Crawford's, 
if it was a quarter of a mile east of the boundary line, as 
the Curetons assert. The Ledger writer's informants 
did not inquire of the old people who lived on Major 
Crawford's place when Jackson was born there, and 
whether the place was in North Carolina or South Car- 
olina, so between the two sets of hearsay witnesses and 
their poor examiners we have lost the best point which 
we might have been able to take " with such allow- 
ances" ..." as ought reasonably to be attached to it." 
But the Ledger offers one witness who was a con- 
' temporary of Jackson's and was reared in the family 
with him, and although an old negro woman of ninety 
is a very poor witness at best, she is better able to locate 
a spot which she had known of her personal knowledge 
than one who has to testify as to an " opinion" gath- 
ered by someone else, then dead, from a conversation 
had many years before with an old lady who did not 
make herself perfectly clear or who was not so drawn 
out by questions as to leave no doubt in the mind of the 
questioner. It is true Maum Phylis's evidence as to 
the birthplace of Jackson would not be admissible, for 
it was only hearsay after all. but her testimony as to 
the location of the spot whereon stood the house in 

436 



APPENDIX 

which her elders all said in her day that Jackson was 
born was a matter of her own knowledge, and that of the 
Parton witnesses lacks even that merit. Their testimony 
as to the location of the reputed house was hearsay. 

One of the latest biographies of Jackson is that by 
Buell, who attempts a new explanation of the early un- 
derstanding of how Jackson came to look upon South 
Carolina as his native State. He says: 

"Jackson was born in 1767. At that time the exact boundary- 
line between the two colonial Carolinas was debatable ; at least, 
it had never been subjected to scientific delineation. But the 
spot where the McCamie cabin stood was, in 1767, under the 
unquestionable — or, rather, the tacitly admitted — jurisdiction of 
the colony of South Carolina. Therefore, Andrew Jackson was 
born in that colony. But shortly after the adoption of the Fed- 
eral Constitution in 1789 an amicable movement for definitive 
location of the boundary was made. This brought about a sur- 
vey during 1793-94 by John Floyd, the result of which was a 
readjustment not only of the line between the two Carolinas, 
but also of the south boundary of Tennessee. So far as con- 
cerned the Carolinas but little change was made, the readjust- 
ment nowhere amounting to more than a mile or two, and even 
that was due to the mere straightening of old lines that had 
been carelessly located or inaccurately marked in the colonial 
surveys. At the particular point concerned in the narrative the 
old and irregular line veered far enough from a true parallel 
to throw the site of the McCamie cabin on the South Carolina 
side. But Floyd's survey located the line on the parallel, which 
cut through a small chord of a former erroneous arc and thereby 
located the McCamie cabin about eighty rods north of the 
line in what was then (1794) Mecklenburg County,^ but since 
set off in what is now Union County, North Carolina." 

Almost every single statement in that paragraph is 
directly contrary to the records in the case. The land 
grant to Robert Crawford of the tract of land upon 
which Boykin, Reilly, and Kendall fix the birthplace 
of Jackson undoubtedly is in the present territory of 
South Carolina, yet the Governor of North Carolina 
had granted it to Andrew Pickens about the time of ;, 
Jackson's birth under the impression that it was in 
North Carolina. If McKemey's cabin was on that tract 
and Jackson was born in that cabin, then he was most 
unquestionably born in what is now South Carolina 

437 



, ./^/LA APPENDIX 

J^\^l ^nd what was then South CaroHna, but supposed by the 
if M^ ,^/Governor of North CaroHna to be in the latter prov- 
" I* '■- ince. If Jackson was born in McKemey's cabin and 
/s. % that cabin stood on the tract of land which McKemey 
^-'^ > * purchased of Repentance Townsend in 1766, then Jack- 

son was undoubtedly born in North Carolina, for that 
A « tract of land was then in North Carolina and never was 

V^ claimed as a part of South Carolina's territory. The 

question is simply whether Jackson's testimony, cor- 
roborated by many documents and publications of 
contemporaries, as to the spot of his birth is to be 
accepted, or rejected in favor of the vague hearsay 
testimony of Parton's witnesses. There was no official 
recognition by the State of South Carolina of any sur- 
vey made by John Floyd and, therefore, if he made any 
I survey of that eight-mile line from the " Stone Corner" 
\ to the gum it had no effect in law. But it is not true 
that there were any kinks or crooks in that line. It was 
defined by Governor Bull in 1764 to be a straight line 
connecting the two points mentioned ; it was run out 
and platted and officially agreed upon in 1772 and it 
was run perfectly straight ; and, finally, when resur- 
veyed in 1813 it was again run straight, and these two 
surveys — those of 1772 and 181 3 — were the only offi- 
cially acknowledged surveys ever made, and they agree, 
and they both followed the directions given by Gover- 
nor Bull in 1764. It is a perfectly straight line run- 
ning north two degrees twelve and a half minutes east, 
as shown by the official survey made by the commis- 
sioners and surveyors representing the two States. 

With all of this evidence before me I can reach no 
other conclusion than that Jackson was born in South 
Carolina, as he has so often declared, and that he was 
born on Robert Crawford's place, as shown by three 
maps prepared during his lifetime, one of which was 
published under his direction, and by the letter he wrote 
to Colonel Witherspoon, referred to by The Lancaster 
Ledger in 1858. 

A. S. Salley, Jr. 
Columbia, S. C, August 25, 1905. 

438 



C- 



Appendix B 



SOUTH CAROLINA ORDINANCE OF NULLI- 
FICATION 

November 24, 1832. 

AN ORDINANCE TO NULLIFY CERTAIN ACTS OF THE CON- 
GRESS OF THE UNITED STATES PURPORTING TO BE LAWS 
LAYING DUTIES AND IMPOSTS ON THE IMPORTATION 
OF FOREIGN COMMODITIES. 

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by vari- 
ous acts, purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts 
on foreign imports, but in reaHty intended for the pro- 
tection of domestic manufactures, and the giving of 
bounties to classes and individuals engaged in particular 
employments, at the expense and to the injury and op- 
pression of other classes and individuals, and by wholly 
exempting from taxation certain foreign commodities, 
such as are not produced or manufactured in the United 
States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher and ex- 
cessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be 
protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the Con- 
stitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such 
protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent 
of the Constitution, which provides for equality in im- 
posing the burthens of taxation upon the several States 
and portions of the confederacy; And whereas the 
said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose taxes 
and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and 
accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which 
the Constitution of the United States authorizes it to 
effect and accomplish, hath raised and collected unnec- 
essary revenue for objects unauthorized by the Consti- 
tution : 

439 



APPENDIX 

We, therefore, the people of the State of South Caro- 
lina in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, 
and it is hereby declared and ordained. That the several 
acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United 
States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties 
and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, 
and now having actual operation and effect within the 
United States, and, more especially, an act entitled " An 
Act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on 
imports," approved on the nineteenth day of May, one 
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also an 
act entitled " An Act to alter and amend the several acts 
imposing duties on imports," approved on the fourteenth 
day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, 
are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United 
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, 
and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this 
State, its officers or citizens ; and all promises, contracts, 
and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or 
entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed 
by the said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall 
be hereafter had in affirmance thereof, are and shall 
be held utterly null and void. 

And it is further ordained. That it shall not be lawful 
for any of the constituted authorities, whether of this 
State or of the United States, to enforce the payment 
of duties imposed by the said acts within the limits of 
this State ; but it shall be the duty of the Legislature to 
adopt such measures and pass such acts as may be neces- 
sary to give full effect to this ordinance, and to prevent 
the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said 
acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United 
States within the limits of this State, from and after 
the first day of February next, and the duty of all other 
constituted authorities, and of all persons residing or 
being within the limits of this State, and they are hereby 
required and enjoined, to obey and give effect to this 
ordinance, and such acts and measures of the Legisla- 
ture as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto. 

And it is further ordained. That in no case of law or 

440 



APPENDIX 

equity, decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall 
be drawn in question the authority of this ordinance, or 
the validity of such act or acts of the Legislature as may 
be passed for the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the 
validity of the aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing 
duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy 
of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose ; 
and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken, 
the courts of this State shall proceed to execute and 
enforce their judgments, according to the laws and 
usages of the State, without reference to such attempted 
appeal, and the person or persons attempting to take 
such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of the 
court. 

And it is further ordained, That all persons bow 
(now) holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil 
or military, under this State (members of the Legisla- 
ture excepted) shall, within such time, and in such man- 
ner as the Legislature shall prescribe, take an oath well 
and truly, to obey, execute, and enforce, this ordinance, 
and such act or acts of the Legislature as may be passed 
in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and 
meaning of the same ; and on the neglect or omission of 
any such person or persons so to do his or their office 
or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled 
up as if such person or persons were dead or had re- 
signed ; and no person hereafter elected to any office 
of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, (members of 
the Legislature excepted,) shall, until the Legislature 
shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execu- 
tion of his office, or be in any respect competent to dis- 
charge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner, 
have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be em- 
pannelled in any of the courts of this State, in any 
cause in which shall be in question this ordinance, or 
anv act of the Legislature passed in pursuance thereof, 
unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, have 
taken an oath that he will well and truly obey, execute, 
and enforce this ordinance, and such act or acts of the 

441 



APPENDIX 

Legislature as may be passed to carry the same into 
operation and effect, according to the true intent and 
meaning thereof. 

And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that 
it may be fully understood by the Government of the 
United States, and the people of the co-States, that zve 
are determined to maintain this, our ordinance and 
declaration, at every hazard, do further declare, That we 
will not submit to the application of force, on the part 
of the Federal Government, to reduce this State to 
obedience ; but that we will consider the passage, by 
Congress, of any act authorizing the employment of a 
military or naval force against the State of South Caro- 
lina, her constitutional authorities or citizens ; or any 
act abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or 
any of them, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress 
and egress of vessels to and from said ports, or any 
other act on the part of the Federal Government, to 
coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass 
her commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared 
to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil 
tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer 
continuance of South Carolina in the Union ; and that 
the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves 
absolved from all further obligations to maintain or pre- 
serve their political connection with the people of the 
other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a 
separate Government, and do all other acts and things 
which sovereign and independent States may of 
right do. 

Done in Convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth 
day of November, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and 
in the fifty-seventh year of the declaration of 
the independence of the United States of 
America. 



442 



Appendix C 

THE NULLIFICATION PROCLAMATION 

BY 

ANDREW JACKSON 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

December lo, 1832 

Whereas a convention assembled in the state of 
South CaroHna have passed an Ordinance, by which 
they declare " That the several acts and parts of acts of 
the Congress of the United States, purporting to be 
laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the im- 
portation of foreign commodities, and now having act- 
ual operation and effect within the United States, and 
more especially" two acts, for the same purposes, passed 
on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832, 
" are unauthorized by the constitution of the United 
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, 
and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the 
citizens of that state or its officers; and by the said 
Ordinance it is further declared to be unlawful for any 
of the constituted authorities of the state or of the 
United States, to enforce the payment of the duties im- 
posed by the said acts within the same state, and that it 
is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may 
be necessary to give full effect to the said Ordinance: 

And whereas, by the said Ordinance, it is further or- 
dained, that, in no case of law or equity, decided in the 
courts of said state, wherein shall be drawn in question 
the validity of the said Ordinance, or of the acts of the 
legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of 
the said laws of the United States, appeal shall be al- 
lowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor 

443 



APPENDIX 

shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for 
that purpose ; and that any person attempting to take 
such an appeal shall be punished as for a contempt of 
court : 

And, finally, the said Ordinance declares that the peo- 
ple of South Carolina will maintain the said Ordinance 
at every hazard ; and that they will consider the pas- 
sage of any act by Congress, abolishing or closing the 
ports of the said state, or otherwise obstructing the free 
ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, 
or any other act of the federal government to coerce 
the state, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her com- 
merce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through 
the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with 
the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union ; 
and that the people of the said state will thenceforth 
hold themselves absolved from all further obligation 
to maintain or preserve their political connexion with 
the people of the other states, and will forthwith pro- 
ceed to organize a separate government, and do all other 
acts and things which sovereign and independent states 
may of right do : 

And whereas the said Ordinance prescribes to the 
people of South Carolina a course of conduct, in direct 
violation of their duty as citizens of the United States, 
contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its 
constitution, and having for its object the destruction of 
the Union — that Union, which, coevil with our political 
existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to 
unite them than those of patriotism and a common 
cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a glorious in- 
dependence — that sacred Union, hitherto inviolate, 
which, perfected by our happy constitution, has brought 
us, by the favour of Heaven, to a state of prosperity at 
home, and high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever, 
equalled in the history of nations : To preserve this 
bond of our political existence from destruction, to 
maintain inviolate this state of national honour and 
prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citi- 
zens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, Presi- 

444 



APPENDIX 

dent of the United States, having thought proper to 
issue this my proclamation, stating my views of the 
constitution and laws appUcable to the measures adopted 
by the convention of South CaroHna, and to the reasons 
they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the 
course which duty will require me to pursue, and, ap- 
pealing to the understanding and patriotism of the peo- 
ple, warn them of the consequences that must inevitably 
result from an observance of the dictates of the con- 
vention. 

Strict duty would require of me nothing more than 
the exercise of those powers with which I am now, or 
may hereafter be invested, for preserving the peace of 
the Union, and for the execution of the laws. But the 
imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in this 
case, by clothing itself with state authority, and the 
deep interest which the people of the United States 
must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger meas- 
ures, while there is a hope that anything will be yielded 
to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, and 
will certainly justify, a full exposition to South Caro- 
lina and the nation of the views I entertain of this im- 
portant question, as well as a distinct enunciation of 
the course which my sense of duty will require me 
to pursue. 

The Ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible 
right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitu- 
tional and too oppressive to be endured, but on the 
strange position that any one state may not only de- 
clare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execu- 
tion — that they may" do this consistently with the con- 
stitution — that the true construction of that instrument 
permits a state to retain its place in the Union, and yet 
be bound by no other of its laws than those it may 
choose to consider as constitutional. It is true, they 
add, that, to justify this abrogation of a law. it must 
be palpably contrary to the constitution ; but it is evi- 
dent, that to give the right of resisting laws of that 
description, coupled with the uncontrolled right to de- 
cide what laws deserve that character, is to give the 

445 



APPENDIX 

power of resisting all laws. For, as by the theory 
there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by the state, good 
or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that public 
opinion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this 
power, it may be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient 
guard against the passage of an unconstitutional act 
by Congress. There is, however, a restraint in this 
last case, which makes the assumed power of a state 
more indefensible, and which does not exist in the other. 
There are two appeals from an unconstitutional act 
passed by Congress — one to the judiciary, the other to 
the people and the states. There is no appeal from the 
state decision in theory; and the practical illustration 
shows that the courts are closed against an application 
to review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to 
decide in its favour. But reasoning on this subject 
is superfluous when our social compact in express terms 
declares, that the laws of the United States, its consti- 
tution, and treaties made under it, are the supreme 
law of the land ; and, for greater caution, adds, " that 
the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any- 
thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the 
contrary notwithstanding." And it may be asserted, 
without fear of refutation, that no federative govern- 
.. ment could exist without a similar provision. Look for 
\ a moment to the consequence. If South Carolina con- 
' siders the revenue laws unconstitutional, and has a 
right to prevent their execution in the port of Charles- 
ton, there would be a clear, constitutional objection to 
their collection in every other port, and no revenue 
could be collected anywhere ; for all imposts must be 
equal. It is no answer to repeat that an unconstitu- 
tional law is no law, so long as the question of legality 
is to be decided by the state itself ; for every law operat- 
ing injuriously upon any local interest will be perhaps 
thought, and certainly represented, as unconstitutional, 
and, as has been shown, there is no appeal. 

If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, 
the Union would have been dissolved in its infancy. The 
excise law in Pennsylvania, the embargo and non-inter- 

446 



APPENDIX 

course law in the eastern states, the carriage tax in Vir- 
ginia, were all deemed unconstitutional, and were more 
unequal in their operation than any of the laws now 
complained of; but, fortunately, none of those states 
discovered that they had the right now claimed by 
South Carolina. The war into which we were forced, 
to support the dignity of the nation and the rights of 
our citizens, might have ended in defeat and disgrace, 
instead of victory and honour, if the states who sup- 
posed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure, had 
thought they possessed the right of nullifying the act 
by which it was declared, and denying supplies for its 
prosecution. Hardly and unequally as those measures 
bore upon the several members of the Union, to the 
legislatures of none did this efficient and peaceable rem- 
edy, as it is called, suggest itself. The discovery of 
this important feature in our constitution was reserved 
to the present day. To the statesmen of South Caro- 
lina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that 
state will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it to 
practice. 

If the doctrine of a state veto upon the laws of the 
Union carries with it internal evidence of its impracti- 
cable absurdity, our constitutional history will also 
aflford abundant proof that it would have been repudi- 
ated with indignation, had it been proposed to form a 
feature in our government. 

In our colonial state, although dependent on another 
power, we very early considered ourselves as connected 
by common interest with each other. Leagues were 
formed for common defence, and before the declaration 
of independence, we were known in our aggregate 
character as the United Colonies of America. That 
decisive and important step was taken jointly. We 
declared ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several 
acts; and when the terms of our confederation were 
reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of 
several states, by which they agreed that they would, 
collectively, form one nation for the purpose of con- 
ducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign 

447 



APPENDIX 

relations. In the instrument forming that Union, is 
found an article which declares that " every state shall 
abide by the determinations of Congress on all ques- 
tions which by that confederation should be submitted 
to them." 

Under the confederation, then, no state could legally 
annul a decision of Congress, or refuse to submit to 
its execution ; but no provision was made to enforce 
these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but they 
were not complied with. The government could not 
operate on individuals. They had no judiciary, no 
means of collecting revenue. 

But the defects of the confederation need not be 
detailed. Under its operation, we could scarcely be 
called a nation. We had neither prosperity at home 
nor consideration abroad. This state of things co'vM 
not be endured, and our present happy constitution was 
formed ; but formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine pre- 
vails. It was formed for important objects that are 
announced in the preamble made in the name and by 
the authority of the people of the United States, whose 
delegates framed, and whose conventions approved it. 
The most important among these objects, that which 
is placed first in rank, on which all the others rest, is 
" to form a more perfect union." Now, is it possible 
that, even if there were no express provision giving 
supremacy to the constitution and laws of the United 
States over those of the states, it can be conceived, 
that an instrument made for the purpose of " forming 
a more perfect union" than that of the confederation, 
could be so constructed by the assembled wisdom of our 
country, as to substitute for that confederation a form 
of government dependent for its existence on the local 
interest, the party spirit of a state, or of a prevailing 
faction in a state? Every man of plain unsophisticated 
understanding, who hears the question, will give such 
an answer as will preserve the Union. Metaphysical 
subtlety, in pursuit of an impracticable theory, could 
alone have devised one that is calculated to destroy it. 

J I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the 

I 448 



APPENDIX 

United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with 
the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by 
the letter of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, 
inconsistent with every principle on which it was 
founded, and destructive of the great object for which 
it was formed. 

After this general view of the leading principle, we 
must examine the particular application of it which is 
made in the Ordinance. 

The preamble rests its justification on these grounds: 
It assumes as a fact, that the obnoxious laws, although 
they purport to be laws for raising revenue, were, in 
reality, intended for the protection of manufacturers, 
which purpose it asserts to be unconstitutional — that the 
operation of these laws is unequal — that the amount 
raised by them is greater than is required by the wants 
of the government — and, finally, that the proceeds are 
to be applied to objects unauthorized by the constitu- 
tion. These are the only causes alleged to justify an 
open opposition to the laws of the country, and a threat 
of seceding from the Union, if any attempt should be 
made to enforce them. The first virtually acknowledges, 
that the law in question was passed under a power 
expressly given by the constitution, to lay and collect 
imposts ; but its constitutionality is drawn in question 
from the motives of those who passed it. However ap- 
parent this purpose may be in the present case, nothing 
can be more dangerous than to admit the position, that 
an unconstitutional purpose, entertained by the mem- 
bers who assent to a law enacted under a constitutional 
power, shall make that law void ; for how is that pur- 
pose to be ascertained? Who is to make the scrutiny? 
How often may bad purposes be falsely imputed? in 
how many cases are they concealed by false profes- 
sions? in how many is no declaration of motive made? 
Admit this doctrine, and you give to the states an un- 
controlled right to decide, and every law may be an- 
nulled under this pretext. If, therefore, the absurd and 
dangerous doctrine should be admitted that a state may 

29 449 



APPENDIX 

annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it deems such, 
it will not apply to the present case. 

The next objection is, that the laws in question oper- 
ate unequally. This objection may be made with truth, 
to every law that has been or can be passed. The wis- 
dom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation, 
that would operate with perfect equality. If the un- 
equal operation of a law makes it unconstitutional, and 
if all laws of that description may be abrogated by 
any state for that cause, then indeed is the federal con- 
stitution unworthy of the slightest effort for its pres- 
ervation. We have hitherto relied on it as the perpetual 
bond of our Union. We have received it as the work 
of the assembled wisdom of the nation. We have 
trusted to it as to the sheet anchor of our safety, in 
the stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic 
foe. We have looked to it with sacred awe, as the pal- 
ladium of our liberties, and, with all the solemnities 
of religion, have pledged to each other our lives and 
fortunes here, and our hopes of happiness hereafter, in 
its defence and support. Were we mistaken, my coun- 
trymen, in attaching this importance to the constitution 
of our country? Was our devotion paid to the 
wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance, which this 
new doctrine would make it? Did we pledge ourselves 
to the support of an airy nothing — a bubble that must 
be blown away by the first breath of disaffection ? Was 
this self-destroying, visionary theory, the work of the 
profound statesman, the exalted patriots, to whom the 
task of constitutional reform was intrusted? Did the 
name of Washington sanction, did the states deliberately 
ratify, such an anomaly in the history of fundamental 
legislation ? No. We were not mistaken ! The letter 
of this great instrument is free from this radical fault: 
its language directly contradicts the imputation : its 
spirit — its evident intent, contradicts it. No, we did 
not err! Our constitution does not contain the ab- 
surdity of giving power to make laws, and another 
power to resist them. The sages, whose memory will 
always be reverenced, have given us a practical and, as 

450 



APPENDIX 

they hoped, a permanent constitutional compact. The 
Father of his country did not affix his revered name to 
so palpable an absurdity. Nor did the states, when they 
severally ratified it, do so under the impression, that a 
veto on the laws of the United States was reserved to 
them, so that they could exercise it by implication. 
Search the debates of all their conventions — examine 
the speeches of the most zealous opposers of federal 
authority — look at the amendments that were proposed. 
They are all silent — not a syllable uttered, not a vote 
given, not a motion made, to correct the explicit su- 
premacy given to the laws of the Union, over those of 
the state — or to show that implication, as is now con- 
tended, could defeat it. No, we have not erred ! The 
constitution is still the object of our reverence, the bond 
of our Union, our defence in danger, the source of our 
prosperity and peace. It shall descend, as we have re- 
ceived it, uncorrupted by sophistical construction, to our 
posterity; and the sacrifices of local interests, of state 
prejudices, of personal animosities, that were made to 
bring it into existence, will again be patriotically offered 
for its support. 

The two remaining objections, made by the Ordinance 
to these laws, are, that the sums intended to be raised 
by them, are greater than are required, and that the pro- 
ceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. The consti- 
tution has given expressly to Congress, the right of 
raising revenue, and of determining the sum the public 
exigencies will require. The states have no control over 
the exercise of this right, other than that which results 
from the power of changing the representatives who 
abuse it, and thus procure redress. 

Congress may, undoubtedly, abuse this discretionary 
power, but the same may be said of others with which 
they are vested. Yet the discretion must exist some- 
where. The constitution has given it to the representa- 
tives of the people, checked by the representatives of 
the states, and by the executive power. The South Car- 
olina construction gives it to the legislature or the con- 
vention of a single state, where neither the people of the 

451 



APPENDIX 

different states, nor the states in their separate capacity, 
nor the chief magistrate, elected by the people, have any 
representation. Which is the most discreet disposition 
of the power? I do not ask you, fellow-citizens, which 
is the constitutional disposition — that instrument speaks 
a language not to be misunderstood. But if you were 
assembled in general convention, which would you think 
the safest depository of this discretionary power, in the 
last resort? Would you add a clause, giving it to each 
of the states ; or would you sanction the wise provisions 
already made by your constitution? If this should be 
the result of your deliberations, when providing for the 
future, are you — can you be — ready to risk all that we 
hold dear, to establish, for a temporary and a local pur- 
pose, that which you must acknowledge to be destruc- 
tive, and even absurd, as a general provision? Carry 
out the consequences of this right vested in the different 
states, and you must perceive that the crisis your con- 
duct presents at this day, would recur whenever any 
law of the United States displeased any of the states, 
and that we should soon cease to be a nation. 

The Ordinance, with the same knowledge of the fu- 
ture that characterizes a former objection, tells you 
that the proceeds of the tax will be unconstitutionally 
applied. If this should be ascertained with certainty, 
the objection would, with more propriety, be reserved 
for the law so applying the proceeds, but surely cannot 
be urged against the laws levying the duty. 

These are the allegations contained in the Ordinance. 
Examine them seriously, my fellow-citizens — judge for 
yourselves. I appeal to you to determine whether they 
are so clear, so convincing, as to leave no doubt of their 
correctness : and even if you should come to this con- 
clusion, how far they justify the reckless, destructive 
course, which you are directed to pursue. Review these 
objections, and the conclusions drawn from them once 
more. What are they? Every law, then, for raising 
revenue, according to the South Carolina Ordinance, 
may be rightfully annulled, unless it be so framed as no 
law ever will or can be framed. Congress have a right 

452 



APPENDIX 

to pass laws for raising revenue, and each state has a 
right to oppose their execution — two rights directly op- 
posed to each other ; and yet is this absurdity supposed 
to be contained in an instrument drawn for the express 
purpose of avoiding collisions between the states and 
the general government, by an assembly of the most en- 
lightened statesmen and purest patriots ever imbodied 
for a similar purpose. 

In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall 
have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and 
excise — in vain have they provided that they shall have 
power to pass laws which shall be necessary and proper 
to carry those powers into execution ; that those laws 
and that constitution shall be the " supreme law of 
the land ; and that the judges in every state shall be 
bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of 
any state to the contrary notwithstanding." In vain 
have the people of the several states solemnly sanctioned 
these provisions, made them their paramount law, and 
individually sworn to support them whenever they were 
called on to execute any office. Vain provisions! in- 
effectual restriction ! vile profanation of oaths ! misera- 
ble mockery of legislation! if a bare majority of the 
voters in any one state, may, on a real or supposed 
knowledge of the intent with which a law has been 
passed, declare themselves free from its operation — say 
here it gives too little, there too much, and operates 
unequally — here it suffers articles to be free that ought 
to be taxed, there it taxes those that ought to be free — 
in this case the proceeds are intended to be applied to 
purposes which we do not approve ; in that the amount 
raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is true, are 
invested by the constitution, with the right of deciding 
these questions according to their sound discretion. 
Congress is composed of the representatives of all the 
states ; and of all the people of all the states ; but we, 
part of the people of one state, to whom the constitution 
has given no power on the subject, from whom it has 
expressly taken away— w^, who have solemnly agreed 
that this constitution shall be our law— 2f^, most of 

453 



APPENDIX 

whom have sworn to support it — we now abrogate this 
law, and swear, and force others to swear, that it shall 
not be obeyed — and we do this, not because Congress 
have no right to pass such laws ; this we do not allege ; 
but because they have passed them with improper views. 
They are unconstitutional from the motives of those 
who passed them, which we can never with certainty 
know, from their unequal operation, although it is im- 
possible from the nature of things that they should be 
equal — and from the disposition which we presume may 
be made of their proceeds, although that disposition has 
not been declared. This is the plain meaning of the 
Ordinance in relation to laws which it abrogates for 
alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not stop there. 
It repeals, in express terms, an important part of the 
constitution itself, and of laws passed to give it effect, 
which have never been alleged to be unconstitutional. 
The constitution declares that the judicial powers of the 
United States extend to cases arising under the laws 
of the United States, and that such laws, the constitu- 
tion, and treaties shall be paramount to the state consti- 
tutions and laws. The judiciary act prescribes the mode 
by which the case may be brought before a court of 
the United States, by appeal, when a state tribunal shall 
decide against this provision of the constitution. The 
Ordinance declares there shall be no appeal ; makes the 
state law paramount to the constitution and laws of the 
United States ; forces judges and jurors to swear that 
they will disregard their provisions ; and even makes it 
penal in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further 
declares that it shall not be lawful for the authorities 
of the United States, or of that state, to enforce the pay- 
ment of duties imposed by the revenue laws within its 
limits. 

Here is a law of the United States, not even pre- 
tended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the authority 
of a small majority of the voters of a single state. Here 
is a provision of the constitution which is solemnly abro- 
gated by the same authority. 

On such expositions and reasonings, the Ordinance 

454 



APPENDIX 

grounds not only an assertion of the right to annul the 
laws of which it complains, but to enforce it by a threat 
of seceding from the Union, if any attempt is made to 
execute them. 

This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the 
constitution, which, they say, is a compact between sov- 
ereign states, who have preserved their whole sover- 
eignty, and, therefore, are subject to no superior: that, 
because they made the compact, they can break it when, 
in their opinion, it has been departed from by the other 
states. Fallacious as this course of reasoning is, it 
enlists state pride, and finds advocates in the honest 
prejudices of those who have not studied the nature of 
our government sufficiently to see the radical error on 
which it rests. 

The people of the United States formed the consti- 
tution, acting through the state legislatures in making 
the compact, to meet and discuss its provisions, and act- 
ing in separate conventions when they ratified those pro- 
visions ; but the terms used in its construction, show 
it to be a government in which the people of all the 
states collectively are represented. We are one people 
in the choice of the president and vice-president. Here 
the states have no other agency than to direct the mode 
in which the votes shall be given. The candidates hav- 
ing the majority of all the votes, are chosen. The elec- 
tors of a majority of states may have given their votes 
for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. The 
people then, and not the states, are represented in the 
executive branch. 

In the House of Representatives there is this differ- 
ence, that the people of one state do not, as in the case 
of president and vice-president, all vote for the same 
officers. The people of all the states do not vote for 
all the members, each state electing only its own repre- 
sentatives. But this creates no material distinction. 
When chosen, they are all representatives of the United 
States, not representatives of the particular state from 
which they come. They are paid by the United States, 
not by the state ; nor are they accountable to it for any 

455 



APPENDIX 

act done in the performance of their legislative func- 
tions ; and, however, they may in practice, as it is their 
duty to do, consult and prefer the interests of their par- 
ticular constituents when they come in conflict with any 
other partial or local interest, yet it is their first and 
highest duty, as representatives of the United States, 
to promote the general good. 

The constitution of the United States, then, forms a 
government, not a league ; and whether it be formed by 
compact between the states, or in any other manner, its 
character is the same. It is a government in which all 
the people are represented, which operates directly on 
the people individually, not upon the states : they re- 
tained all the power they did not grant. But each state 
having expressly parted with so many powers as to con- 
stitute jointly with the other states a single nation, 
cannot, from that period, possess any right to secede, 
because such secession does not break a league, but de- 
stroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity 
is not only a breach which would result from the con- 
travention of a compact, but it is an offence against the 
whole Union. To say that any state may at pleasure 
secede from the Union, is to say that the United States 
are not a nation : because it would be a solecism to 
contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its con- 
nexion with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, 
without committing any offence. Secession, like any 
other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the 
extremity of oppression ; but to call it a constitutional 
right is confounding the meaning of terms ; and can 
only be done through gross error, or to deceive those 
who are willing to assert a right, but would pause be- 
fore they made a revolution, or incur the penalties con- 
sequent on a failure. 

Because the Union was formed by compact, it is 
said the parties to that compact may, when they feel 
themselves aggrieved, depart from it ; but it is pre- 
cisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A com- 
pact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may, by 
its terms, have a sanction or penalty for its breach, 

456 



APPENDIX 

or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be 
broken with no other consequence than moral guilt: if 
it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the designated 
or implied penalty. A league between independent na- 
tions, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one ; 
or, if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common 
superior, it cannot be enforced. A government, on the 
contrary, always has a sanction, express or implied ; 
and, in our case, it is both necessarily implied and ex- 
pressly given. An attempt by force of arms to destroy a 
government, is an offence, by whatever means the con- 
stitutional compact may have been formed ; and such 
government has the right, by the law of self-defence, to 
pass acts for punishing the offender, unless that right 
is modified, restrained, or resumed, by the constitutional 
act. In our system, although it is modified in the case 
of treason, yet authority is expressly given to pass all 
laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and under 
this grant provision has been made for punishing acts 
which obstruct the due administration of the laws. 

It would seem superfluous to add anything to show 
the nature of that union which connects us ; but as er- 
roneous opinions on this subject are the foundation of 
doctrines the most destructive to our peace, I must give 
some further developement to my views on this subject. 
No one, fellow-citizens, has a higher reverence for the 
reserved rights of the states, than the magistrate who 
now addresses you. No one would make greater per- 
sonal sacrifices,' or official exertions, to defend them 
from violation ; but equal care must be taken to prevent 
on their part an improper interference with, or resump- 
tion of, the rights they have vested in the nation. The 
line has not been so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts 
in some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the 
best intentions and soundest views may differ in their 
construction of some parts of the constitution ; but there 
are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no 
doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed right 
of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged 
undivided sovereignty of the states, and on their hav- 

457 



APPENDIX 

ing formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which 
is called the constitution, from which, because they made 
it, they have a right to secede. Both of these positions 
are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove 
them so have been anticipated. 

The states severally have not retained their entire 
sovereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts 
of a nation, not members of a league, they surrendered 
many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right 
to make treaties — declare war — levy taxes — exercise ex- 
clusive judicial and legislative powers — were all of them 
functions of sovereign power. The states, then, for all 
these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. 
The allegiance of their citizens was transferred, in the 
first instance, to the government of the United States 
— they became American citizens, and owed obedience 
to the^ constitution of the United States, and to laws 
made in conformity with the powers it vested in Con- 
gress. This last position has not been, and cannot be 
denied. How then can that state be said to be sover- 
eign and independent, whose citizens owe obedience to 
laws not made by it, and whose magistrates are sworn 
to disregard those laws, when they come in conflict with 
those passed by another? What shows conclusively that 
the states cannot be said to have reserved an undivided 
sovereignty, is, that they expressly ceded the right to 
punish treason — not treason against their separate 
power — but treason against the United States. Treason 
is an offence against sovereignty ; and sovereignty must 
reside with the power to punish it. But the reserved 
rights of the states are not less sacred, because they have 
for their common interest made the general governmeni; 
the depository of these powers. 

The unity of our political character (as has been 
shown for another purpose) commenced with its very 
existence. Under the royal government we had no sep- 
arate character — our opposition to its oppressions began 
as United Colonies. We were the United States 
under the confederation, and the name was perpetuated, 
and the Union rendered more perfect, by the federal 

458 



APPENDIX 

constitution. In none of these stages did we consider 
ourselves in any other light than as forming one nation. 
Treaties and alliances were made in the name of all. 
Troops were raised for the joint defence. How, then, 
with all these proofs that, under all changes of our posi- 
tion, we had, for designated purposes and with defined 
powers, created national governments — how is it, that 
the most perfect of those several modes of union should 
now be considered as a mere league, that it may be dis- 
solved at pleasure ? It is from an abuse of terms. Com- 
pact is used as synonymous with league, although the 
true term is not employed, because it would at once 
show the fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to 
say that our constitution was only a league, but, it is 
laboured to prove it a compact (which in one sense it 
is) and then to argue that as a league is a compact, 
every compact between nations must of course be a 
league, and that from such an engagement every sov- 
ereign power has a right to recede. But it has been 
shown, that in this sense the states are not sovereign, 
and that even if they were, and the national constitu- 
tion had been formed by compact, there would be no 
right in any one state to exonerate itself from its obli- 
gations. 

So obvious are the reasons which forbid this seces- 
sion, that it is necessary only to allude to them. The 
Union was formed for the benefit of all. It was pro- 
duced by mutual sacrifices of interests and opinions. 
Can those sacrifices be recalled? Can the states who 
magnanimously surrendered their title to the territories 
of the West, recall the grant? Will the inhabitants of 
the inland states agree to pay the duties that may be 
imposed without their assent by those on the Atlantic or 
the Gulf, for their own benefit? Shall there be a free 
port in one state, and onerous duties in another? No 
one believes that any right exists in a single state to 
involve all the others in these and countless other evils, 
contrary to the engagements solemnly made. Every 
one must see that the other states, in self-defence, must 
oppose it at all hazards. 

459 



APPENDIX 

These are the alternatives that are presented by the 
convention : a repeal of all the acts for raising revenue, 
leaving the government without the means of support, 
or an acquiescence in the dissolution of the Union by 
the secession of one of its members. When the first 
was proposed, it was known that it could not be lis- 
tened to for a moment. It was known, if force was 
applied to oppose the execution of the laws, that it 
must be repelled by force — that Congress could not, 
without involving itself in disgrace, and the country in 
ruin, accede to the proposition ; and yet, if this is not 
done in a given day, or if any attempt is made to exe- 
cute the laws, the state is, by the Ordinance, declared to 
be out of the Union. The majority of a convention as- 
sembled for the purpose, have dictated these terms, or 
rather this rejection of all terms, in the name of the 
people of South Carolina. It is true, that the governor 
of the state speaks of the submission of their grievances 
to a convention of all the states ; which, he says, they 
" sincerely and anxiously seek and desire." Yet this 
obvious and constitutional mode of obtaining the sense 
of the other states, on the construction of the federal 
compact, and amending it, if necessary, has never been 
attempted by those who have urged the state on this 
destructive measure. The state might have proposed 
the call for a general convention, to the other states, 
and Congress, if a sufficient number of them concurred, 
must have called it. But the first magistrate of South 
Carolina, when he expressed a hope that, " on a review 
by Congress and the functionaries of the general gov- 
ernment of the merits of the controversy," such a con- 
vention will be accorded to them, must have known that 
neither Congress nor any functionary of the general 
government has authority to call such a convention, un- 
less it be demanded by two-thirds of the states. This 
suggestion, then, is another instance of the reckless in- 
attention to the provisions of the constitution with which 
this crisis has been madly hurried on ; or of the at- 
tempt to persuade the people that a constitutional rem- 
edy has been sought and refused. If the legislature of 

460 



APPENDIX 

South Carolina " anxiously desire" a general conven- 
tion to consider their complaints, why have they not 
made application for it in the way the constitution 
points out? The assertion that they "earnestly seek" 
it, is completely negatived by the omission. 

This, then, is the position in which we stand. A 
small majority of the citizens of one state in the Union 
have elected delegates to a state convention : that con- 
vention has ordained that all the revenue laws of the 
United States must be repealed, or that they are no 
longer a member of the Union. The governor of that 
state has recommended to the legislature the raising 
of an army to carry the secession into effect, and that 
he may be empowered to give clearances to vessels in 
the name of the state. No act of violent opposition to 
the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of 
things is hourly apprehended, and it is the intent of this 
instrument to proclaim not only that the duty imposed 
on me by the constitution " to take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed," shall be performed to the extent 
of the powers already vested in me by law, or of such 
other as the wisdom of Congress shall devise and 
intrust to me for that purpose, but to warn the citizens 
of South Carolina, who have been deluded into an 
opposition to the laws, of the danger they will incur 
by obedience to the illegal and disorganizing Ordinance 
of the convention, — to exhort those who have refused 
to support it to persevere in their determination to up- 
hold the constitution and laws of their country, and 
to point out to all the perilous situation into which the 
good people of that state have been led, — and that the 
course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and 
disgrace to the very state whose rights they affect to 
support. 

Fellow-citizens of my native state ! — let me not only 
admonish you, as the first magistrate of our common 
country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use 
the influence that a father would over his children 
whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal 
language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, 

461 



APPENDIX 

my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are 
either deceived themselves, or wish to deceive you. 
Mark under what pretences you have been led on to 
the brink of insurrection and treason, on which you 
stand ! First, a diminution of the value of your staple 
commodity, lowered by over production in other quar- 
ters, and the consequent diminution in the value of your 
lands, were the sole effect of the tariff laws. The effect 
of those laws is confessedly injurious, but the evil was 
greatly exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were 
taught to believe, that its burdens were in proportion 
to your exports, not to your consumption of imported 
articles. Your pride was roused by the assertion that 
a submission to those laws was a state of vassalage, and 
that resistance to them was equal, in patriotic merit, to 
the opposition our fathers offered to the oppressive laws 
of Great Britain. You were told that this opposition 
might be peaceably — might be constitutionally made — 
that you might enjoy all the advantages of the Union 
and bear none of its burdens. 

Eloquent appeals to your passions, to your state pride, 
to your native courage, to your sense of real injury, 
were used to prepare you for the period when the mask 
which concealed the hideous features of disunion should 
be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with 
complacency on objects which, not long since, you would 
have regarded with horror. Look back at the arts 
which have brought you to this state — look forward to 
the consequences to which it must inevitably lead. Look 
back to what was first told you as an inducement to 
enter into this dangerous course. The great political 
truth was repeated to you, that you had the revolution- 
ary right of resisting all laws that were palpably uncon- 
stitutional, and intolerably oppressive — it was added 
that the right to nullify a law rested on the same prin- 
ciple, but that it was a peaceable remedy! This char- 
acter which was given to it, made you receive with too 
much confidence the assertions that were made of the 
unconstitutionality of the law, and its oppressive effects. 
Mark, my fellow-citizens, that, by the admission of your 

462 



APPENDIX 

leaders, the unconstitutionality must be palpable, or it 
will not justify either resistance or nullification ! What 
is the meaning of the word palpable, in the sense in 
which it is here used? — that which is apparent to every 
one; that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail 
to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of 
that description? Let those among your leaders who 
once approved and advocated the principle of protective 
duties, answer the question ; and let them choose 
whether they will be considered as incapable, then, of 
perceiving that which must have been apparent to every 
man of common understanding, or as imposing upon 
your confidence, and endeavouring to mislead you now. 
In either case, they are unsafe guides in the perilous 
path they urge you to tread. Ponder well on this cir- 
cumstance, and you will know how to appreciate the 
exaggerated language they address to you. They are 
not champions of liberty, emulating the fame of our rev- 
olutionary fathers ; nor are you an oppressed people, 
contending, as they repeat to you, against worse than 
colonial vassalage. You are free members of a flour- 
ishing and happy Union. There is no settled design to 
oppress you. You have indeed felt the unequal opera- 
tion of laws which may have been unwisely, not uncon- 
stitutionally passed; but that inequality must neces- 
sarily be removed. At the very moment when you were 
madly urged on the unfortunate course you have begun, 
a change in public opinion had commenced. The nearly 
approaching payment of the public debt, and the conse- 
quent necessity of a diminution of duties, had already 
produced a considerable reduction, and that too, on 
some articles of general consumption in your state. The 
importance of this change was understood, and you were 
authoritativelv told, that no further alleviation of your 
burdens was to be expected, at the very time when the 
condition of the country imperiously demanded such a 
modification of the duties as should reduce them to a 
just and equitable scale. But, as if apprehensive of 
the effect of this change in allaying your discontents, 

463 



APPENDIX 

you were precipitated into the fearful state in which 
you now find yourselves. 

I have urged you to look back to the means that were 
used to hurry you on to the position you have now 
assumed, and forward to the consequences it will pro- 
duce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the 
condition of that country of which you still form an 
important part! — consider its government, uniting in 
one bond of common interests and general protection 
so many different states — giving to all their inhabitants 
the proud title of American citizens — protecting their 
commerce — securing their literature and their arts — 
facilitating their intercommunication, defending their 
frontiers — and making their name respected in the re- 
motest parts of the earth ! Consider the extent of its 
territory, its increasing and happy population, its ad- 
vance in arts which render life agreeable, and the sci- 
ences which elevate the mind ! See education spreading 
the lights of religion, humanity, and general informa- 
tion into every cottage in this wide extent of our terri- 
tories and states ! Behold it as the asylum where the 
wretched and the oppressed find a refuge and support ! 
Look on this picture of happiness and honour, and 
say, we, too, are citizens of America ; Carolina is one 
of these proud states ; her arms have defended — her 
best blood has cemented this happy Union ! And then 
add, if you can, without horror and remorse, this happy 
Union we will dissolve — this picture of peace and pros- 
perity we will deface — this free intercourse we will in- 
terrupt — these fertile fields we will deluge with blood — 
the protection of that glorious flag we renounce — the 
very name of Americans we discard. And for what, 
mistaken men ! for what do you throw away these ines- 
timable blessings — for what would you exchange your 
share in the advantages and honour of the Union ? For 
the dream of a separate independence, a dream inter- 
rupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, and a 
vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders 
could succeed in establishing a separation, what would 
be your situation? Are you united at home — are you 

464 



APPENDIX 

free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all 
its fearful consequences? Do our neighboring repub- 
lics, every day suffering some new revolution or con- 
tending with some new insurrection — do they excite 
your envy? But the dictates of a high duty oblige me 
solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed. The 
laws of the United States must be executed. I have no 
discretionary power on the subject — my duty is em- 
phatically pronounced in the constitution. Those who 
told you that you might peaceably prevent their execu- 
tion, deceived you — they could not have been deceived 
themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could 
alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know 
that such opposition must be repelled. Their object 
is disunion ; but be not deceived by names : disunion, 
by armed force, is treason. Are you really ready to 
incur its guilt ? If you are, on the heads of the instiga- 
tors of the act be the dreadful consequences — on their 
heads be the dishonour, but on yours may fall the pun- 
ishment — on your unhappy state will inevitably fall all 
the evils of the conflict you force upon the government 
of your country. It cannot accede to the mad project 
of disunion of which you would be the first victims — its 
first magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the perform- 
ance of his duty — the consequence must be fearful for 
you, distressing to your fellow-citizens here, and to the 
friends of good government throughout the world. Its 
enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation 
they could not conceal — it was a standing refutation of 
their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our dis- 
cord with the triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in 
your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to 
show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sum- 
ters, the Rutledges, and of the thousand other names 
which adorn the pages of your Revolutionary history, 
will not abandon that Union, to support which so many 
of them fought and bled and died. I adjure you, as 
you honour their memory — as you love the cause of 
freedom, to which they dedicated their lives--as you 
prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best 
30 465 



APPENDIX 

citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. 
Snatch from the archives of your state the disorganiz- 
ing edict of its convention — bid its members to reas- 
semble and promulgate the decided expressions of your 
will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you 
to safety, prosperity, and honour — tell them that, com- 
pared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that 
brings with it an accumulation of all — declare that you 
will never take the field unless the star-spangled ban- 
ner of your country shall float over you — that you will 
not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonoured and 
scorned while you live, as the authors of the first at- 
tack on the constitution of your country ! — its destroy- 
ers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace — you 
may interrupt the course of its prosperity — you may 
cloud its reputation for stability — but its tranquillity 
will be restored, its prosperity will return ; and the stain 
upon its national character will be transferred, and 
remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who 
caused the disorder. 

Fellow-citizens of the United States! The threat of 
unhallowed disunion — the names of those, once re- 
spected, by whom it is uttered — the array of military 
force to support it — denote the approach of a crisis in 
our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled 
prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of 
all free governments, may depend. The conjuncture 
demanded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation not 
only of my intentions, but of my principles of action : 
and as the claim was asserted of a right by a state to 
annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede from 
it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in rela- 
tion to the origin and form of our government, and the 
construction I give to the instrument by which it was 
created, seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confi- 
dence in the justness of the legal and constitutional 
opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I rely 
with equal confidence on your undivided support in my 
determination to execute the laws — to preserve the 
Union by all constitutional means — to arrest, if possible, 

466 



APPENDIX 

by moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a re- 
course to force; and, if it be the will of Heaven that 
the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shed- 
ding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that 
it be not called down by any offensive act on the part 
of the United States. 

Fellow-citizens ! The momentous case is before you. 
On your undivided support of your government depends 
the decision of the great question it involves, whether 
your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing 
it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No 
one can doubt the unanimity with which that decision 
will be expressed, will be such as to inspire new confi- 
dence in republican institutions, and that the prudence, 
the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to 
their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and in- 
vigorated, to our children. 

May the great Ruler of nations grant that the signal 
blessings with which He has favoured ours, may not 
by the madness of party or personal ambition be disre- 
garded and lost: and may His wise Providence bring 
those who have produced this crisis, to see the fojly 
before they feel the misery of civil strife: and inspire 
a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may 
dare to penetrate His designs, he has chosenas the only 
means of attaining the high destinies to which we may 
reasonably aspire. 

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the 
United States to be hereunto affixed, having signed the 
same with my hand. 

Done at the city of Washington, this loth day of 
December, A. D. 1832, and of the Independence of the 
United States the fifty-seventh. 

Andrew Jackson. 

By the President: 

Edw. Livingston, 

Secretary of State. 



467 



Appendix D 

GENERAL JACKSON'S 

FAREWELL ADDRESS 

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES 

ON RETIRING FROM THE PRESIDENCY, 

March 4, 1837. 

Fellow-Citizens: — Being about to retire finally 
from public life, I beg leave to offer you my grateful 
thanks for the many proofs of kindness and confidence 
which I have received at your hands. It has been my 
fortune, in the discharge of public duties, civil and mil- 
itary, frequently to have found myself in difficult and 
trying situations, where prompt decision and energetic 
action were necessary, and where the interest of the 
country required that high responsibilities should be 
fearlessly encountered: and it is with the deepest emo- 
tions of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued and 
unbroken confidence with which you have sustained me 
in every trial. My public life has been a long one, and 
I cannot hope that it has, at all times, been free from er- 
rors. But I have the consolation of knowing that, if 
mistakes have been committed, they have not seriously 
injured the country I so anxiously endeavoured to 
serve ; and, at the moment when I surrender my last 
public trust. I leave this great people prosperous and 
happy ; in the full enjoyment of liberty and peace, and 
honoured and respected by every nation of the world. 

If my humble efforts have, in any degree, contributed 
to preserve to you these blessings, I have been more 
than rewarded by the honours you have heaped upon 
me; and, above all, by the generous confidence with 

468 



APPENDIX 

which you have continued to animate and cheer my 
path to the closing hour of my poHtical Hfe. The time 
has now come, when advanced age and a l)roken frame 
warn me to retire from pubhc concerns ; but the recol- 
lection of the many favours you have bestowed upon 
me, is engraven upon my heart, and I have felt that I 
could not part from your service without making this 
public acknowledgment of the gratitude I owe you. And 
if I use the occasion to offer you the counsels of age 
and experience, you will, I trust, receive them with 
the same indulgent kindness which you have so often 
extended to me, and will at least see in them an earnest 
desire to perpetuate in this favoured land the blessings 
of liberty and equal laws. 

We have now lived almost fifty years under the con- 
stitution framed by the sages and patriots of the Revo- 
lution. The conflicts in which the nations of Europe 
were engaged during a great part of this period ; the 
spirit in which they waged war against each other, and 
our intimate commercial connexions with every part of 
the civilized world, rendered it a time of much diffi- 
culty for the government of the United States. We 
have had our seasons of peace and of war, with all the 
evils which precede or follow a state of hostility with 
powerful nations. We encountered these trials with our 
constitution yet in its infancy, and under the disad- 
vantages which a new and untried government must 
always feel when it is called upon to put forth its whole 
strength, without the lights of experience to guide it, 
or the weight of precedents to justify its measures. But 
we have passed triumphantly through all these difficul- 
ties. Our constitution is no longer a doubtful experi- 
ment ; and, at the end of nearly half a century, we find 
that it has preserved unimpaired the liberties of the peo- 
ple, secured the rights of property, and that our coun- 
try has improved and is flourishing beyond any former 
example in the history of nations. 

In our domestic concerns, there is everything to en- 
courage us ; and if you are true to yourselves, nothing 
can impede your march to the highest point of national 

469 



APPENDIX 

prosperity. The states which had so long been retarded 
in their improvement, by the Indian tribes residing in 
the midst of them, are at length relieved from the evil, 
and this unhappy race — the original dwellers in our 
land — are now placed in a situation where we may well 
hope that they will share in the blessings of civilization, 
and be saved from that degradation and destruction to 
which they were rapidly hastening while they remained 
in the states; and while the safety and comfort of our 
own citizens have been greatly promoted by their re- 
moval, the philanthropist will rejoice that the last rem- 
nant of that ill-fated race has been at length placed be- 
yond the reach of injury or oppression, and that the 
paternal care of the general government will hereafter 
watch over them and protect them. 

If we turn to our relations with foreign powers, we 
find our condition equally gratifying. Actuated by the 
sincere desire to do justice to every nation, and to pre- 
serve the blessings of peace, our intercourse with them 
has been conducted on the part of this government in 
the spirit of frankness, and I take pleasure in saying, 
that it has generally been met in a corresponding tem- 
per. Difficulties of old standing have been surmounted 
by friendly discussion, and the mutual desire to be just; 
and the claims of our citizens, which have been long 
withheld, have at length been acknowledged and ad- 
justed, and satisfactory arrangements made for their 
final payment; and with a limited, and I trust, a tem- 
porary exception, our relations with every foreign 
power are now of the most friendly character — our com- 
merce continually expanding, and our flag respected in 
every quarter of the globe. 

These cheering and grateful prospects, and these mul- 
tiplied favours, we owe, under Providence, to the adop- 
tion of the federal constitution. It is no longer a ques- 
tion whether this great country can remain happily 
united, and flourish under our present form of govern- 
ment. Experience, the unerring test of all human un- 
derstanding, has shown the wisdom and foresight of 
those who formed it ; and has proved, that in the union 

470 



APPENDIX 

of these states there is a sure foundation for the bright- 
est hopes of freedom, and for the happiness of the peo- 
ple. At every hazard, and by every sacrifice, this Union 
must be preserved. 

The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety for 
the preservation of the Union, was earnestly pressed 
upon his fellow-citizens by the Father of his country, in 
his farewell address. He has there told us, that " while 
experience shall not have demonstrated its impractica- 
bility, there will always be reason to distrust the pa- 
triotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to 
weaken its bonds ;" and he has cautioned us in the 
strongest terms against the formation of parties on geo- 
graphical discriminations, as one of the means which 
might disturb our Union, and to which designing men 
would be likely to resort. 

The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of 
Washington to his countrymen, should be cherished in 
the heart of every citizen to the latest generation ; and, 
perhaps, at no period of time could they be more use- 
fully remembered that at the present moment. For 
when we look upon the scenes that are passing around 
us, and dwell upon the pages of his parting address, his 
paternal counsels would seem to be not merely the off- 
spring of wisdom and foresight, but the voice of proph- 
ecy foretelling events and warning us of the evil to 
come. Forty years have passed since this imperishable 
document was given to his countrymen. The federal 
constitution was then regarded by him as an experiment, 
—and he so speaks of it in his address,— but an experi- 
ment upon the success of which the best hopes of his 
country depended; and we all know that he was pre- 
pared to lay down his life, if necessary, to secure to 
it a full and fair trial. The trial has been made. It has 
succeeded beyond the proudest hopes of those who 
framed it. Every quarter of this widely-extended na- 
tion has felt its blessings, and shared in the general 
prosperity produced by its adoption. But amid this gen- 
eral prosperity and splendid success, the dangers of 
which he warned us are becoming every day more evi- 

471 



APPENDIX 

dent, and the signs of evil are sufficiently apparent to 
awaken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of the patriot. 
We behold systematic efforts publicly made to sow the 
seeds of discord between different parts of the United 
States, and to place party divisions directly upon geo- 
graphical distinctions ; to excite the south against the 
north, and the north against the south, and to force 
into the controversy the most delicate and exciting 
topics — topics upon which it is impossible that a large 
portion of the Union can ever speak without strong 
emotion. Appeals, too, are constantly made to sectional 
interests, in order to influence the election of the chief 
magistrate, as if it were desired, that he should favour 
a particular quarter of the country, instead of fulfilling 
the duties of his station with impartial justice to all ; 
and the possible dissolution of the Union has at length 
become an ordinary and familiar subject of discussion. 
Has the warning voice of Washington been forgotten? 
or have designs already been formed to sever the 
Union? Let it not be supposed, that I impute to all of 
those who have taken an active part in these unwise 
and unprofitable discussions, a want of patriotism or of 
public virtue. The honourable feeling of state pride, 
and local attachments, find a place in the bosoms of the 
most enlightened and pure. But while such men are 
conscious of their own integrity and honesty of pur- 
pose, they ought never to forget, that the citizens of 
other states are their political brethren ; and that, how- 
ever mistaken they may be in their views, the great 
body of them are equally honest and upright with them- 
selves. Mutual suspicions and reproaches may, in time, 
create mutual hostility ; and artful and designing men 
will always be found, who are ready to foment these 
fatal divisions, and to inflame the natural jealousies of 
different sections of the country. The history of the 
world is full of such examples, and especially the his- 
tory of republics. 

What have you to gain by division and dissension? 
Delude not yourselves with the belief, that a breach once 
made may be afterwards repaired. If the Union is once 

472 



APPENDIX 

severed, the line of separation will grow wider and 
wider, and the controversies which are now debated and 
settled in the halls of legislation, will then be tried in 
fields of battle, and determined by the sword. Neither 
should you deceive yourselves with the hope, that the 
first line of separation would be the permanent one, and 
that nothing but harmony and concord would be found 
in the new associations formed upon the dissolution of 
the Union. Local interests would still be found there, 
and unchastened ambition. And if the recollection of 
common dangers, in which the people of these United 
States stood side by side against the common foe ; the 
memory of victories won by their united valour ; the 
prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed under the 
present constitution ; the proud name they bear as citi- 
zens of this great republic : if all these recollections and 
proofs of common interest are not strong enough to 
bind us together as one people, what tie will hold united 
the new divisions of empire, when these bonds have 
been broken, and this Union dissevered? 

The first line of separation would not last for a single 
generation ; new fragments would be torn off ; new 
leaders would spring up ; and this great and glorious 
republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty 
states, without commerce, without credit; jealous of 
one another ; armed for mutual aggression ; loaded with 
taxes to pay armies and leaders; seeking aid against 
each other from foreign powers ; insulted and trampled 
upon by the nations of Europe, until, harassed with 
conflicts, and humbled and debased in spirit, they would 
be ready to submit to the absolute dominion of any mil- 
itary adventurer, and to surrender their liberty for the 
sake of repose. It is impossible to look on the conse- 
quences that would inevitably follow the destruction of 
this government, and not feel indignant when we hear 
cold calculations about the value of the Union, and have 
so constantly before us a line of conduct so well calcu- 
lated to weaken its ties. 

There is too much at stake to allow pride or pas- 
sion to influence your decision. Never for a moment 

473 



APPENDIX 

believe that the great body of the citizens of any state 
or states can deliberately intend to do wrong. They 
may, under the influence of temporary excitement or 
misguided opinions, commit mistakes ; they may be mis- 
led for a time by the suggestions of self-interest ; but 
in a community so enlightened and patriotic as the peo- 
ple of the United States, argument will soon make them 
sensible of their errors, and when convinced they will 
be ready to repair them. If they have no higher or bet- 
ter motives to govern them, they will at least perceive 
that their own interest requires them to be just to others 
as they hope to receive justice at their hands. 

But in order to maintain the Union imimpaired, it is 
absolutely necessary that the laws passed by the con- 
stituted authorities should be faithfully executed in 
every part of the country, and that every good citizen 
should, at all times, stand ready to put down, with the 
combined force of the nation, every attempt at unlaw- 
ful resistance, under whatever pretext it may be made, 
or whatever shape it may assume. Unconstitutional or 
oppressive laws may no doubt be passed by Congress, 
either from erroneous views or the want of due consid- 
eration ; if they are within the reach of judicial au- 
thority the remedy is easy and peaceful ; and if, from 
the character of the law, it is an abuse of power not 
within the control of the judiciary, then free discus- 
sion and calm appeals to reason and to the justice of 
the people will not fail to redress the wrong. But until 
the law shall be declared void by the courts, or repealed 
by Congress, no individual or combination of individuals 
can be justified in forcibly resisting its execution. It 
is impossible that any government can continue to exist 
upon any other principles. It would cease to be a gov- 
ernment and be unworthy of the name, if it had not the 
power to enforce the execution of its own laws within 
its own sphere of action. 

It is true, that cases may be imagined, disclosing such 
a settled purpose of usurpation and oppression on the 
part of the government as would justify an appeal to 
arms. These, however, are extreme cases, which we 

474 



APPENDIX 

have no reason to apprehend in a government where the 
power is in the hands of a patriotic people ; and no cit- 
izen, who loves his country, would, in any case what- 
ever, resort to forcible resistance, unless he clearly saw 
that the time had come when a freeman should prefer 
death to submission; for if such a struggle is once 
begun, and the citizens of one section of the country 
are arrayed in arms against those of another in doubtful 
conflict, let the battle result as it may, there will be an 
end of the Union, and with it an end of the hopes of 
freedom. The victory of the injured would not secure 
to them the blessings of liberty ; it would avenge their 
wrongs, but they would themselves share in the com- 
mon ruin. 

But the constitution cannot be maintained, nor the 
Union preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the 
mere exertion of the coercive powers confided to the 
general government. The foundation'^ must be laid in 
the affections of the people ; in the security it gives to 
life, liberty, character, and property, in every quarter 
of the country, and in the fraternal attachment which the 
citizens of the several states bear to one another as mem- 
bers of one political family, mutually contributing to 
promote the happiness of each other. Hence, the citi- 
zens of every state should studiously avoid everything 
calculated to wound the sensibility, or offend the just 
pride of the people of other states ; and they should 
frown upon any proceedings within their own borders 
likely to disturb the tranquillity of their political breth- 
ren in other portions of the Union. In a country so ex- 
tensive as the United States, and with pursuits so varied, 
the internal regulations of the several states must fre- 
quently differ from one another in important particu- 
lars ; and this difference is unavoidably increased by 
the varying principles upon which the American colo- 
nies were originally planted — principles which had taken 
deep root in their social relations before the Revolution, 
and, therefore, of necessity, influencing their policy 
since they became free and independent states. But 
each state has the unquestionable right to regulate its 

475 



APPENDIX 

Own internal concerns, according to its own pleasure; 
and while it does not interfere with the rights of the 
people of other states, or the rights of the Union, every 
state must be the sole judge of the measures proper to 
secure the safety of its citizens, and promote their hap- 
piness ; and all efforts on the part of the people of 
other states to cast odium upon their institutions, and all 
measures calculated to disturb their rights of property, 
or to put in jeopardy their peace and internal tranquil- 
lity, are in direct opposition to the spirit in which the 
Union was formed, and must endanger its safety. Mo- 
tives of philanthropy may be assigned for this unwar- 
rantable interference, and weak men may persuade 
themselves for a moment, that they are laboring in the 
cause of humanity, and asserting the rights of the 
human race ; but every one, upon sober reflection, will 
see that nothing but mischief can come from these im- 
proper assaults upon the feelings and rights of others. 
Rest assured, that the men found busy in this work of 
discord are not worthy of your confidence, and deserve 
your strongest reprobation. 

In the legislation of Congress, also, and in every 
measure of the general government, justice to every por- 
tion of the United States should be faithfully observed. 
No free government can stand without virtue in the 
people, and a lofty spirit of patriotism ; and if the sor- 
did feelings of mere selfishness shall usurp the place 
which ought to be filled by public spirit, the legislation 
of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble for 
personal and sectional advantages. Under our free in- 
stitutions, the citizens of every quarter of our country 
are capable of attaining a high degree of prosperity and 
happiness, without seeking to profit themselves at the 
expense of others, and every such attempt must, in the 
end, fail to succeed ; for the people in every part of 
the United States are too enlightened not to understand 
their own rights and interests, and to detect and defeat 
every effort to gain undue advantage over them ; and 
when such designs are discovered, it naturally provokes 
resentments which cannot always be easily allayed. Jus- 

476 



APPENDIX 

tice, full and ample justice to every portion of the 
United States, should be the ruling principle of every 
freeman, and should guide the deliberations of every 
public body, whether it be state or national. 

It is well known that there have always been those 
amongst us who wish to enlarge the powers of the gen- 
eral government; and experience would seem to indi- 
cate that there is a tendency on the part of this govern- 
ment to overstep the boundaries marked out for it by 
the constitution. Its legitimate authority is abundantly 
sufficient for all the purposes for which it was created, 
and its powers being expressly enumerated, there can 
be no justification for claiming anything beyond them. 
Every attempt to exercise power beyond these limits 
should be promptly and firmly opposed. For one evil 
example will lead to other measures still more mischiev- 
ous ; and if the principle of constructive powers, or 
supposed advantages, or temporary circumstances, shall 
ever be permitted to justify the assumption of a power 
not given by the constitution, the general government 
will before long absorb all the powers of legislation, and 
you will have, in effect, but one consolidated govern- 
ment. From the extent of our country, its diverisfied 
interests, different pursuits, and different habits, it is 
too obvious for argument that a single consolidated gov- 
ernment would be wholly inadequate to watch over and 
protect its interests ; and every friend of our free in- 
stitutions should be always prepared to maintain unim- 
paired and in full vigour the rights and sovereignty of 
the states, and to confine the action of the general gov- 
ernment strictly to the sphere of its appropriate duties. 

There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on 
the federal government, so liable to abuse as the taxing 
power. The most productive and convenient sources of 
revenue were necessarily given to it, that it might be 
able to perform the important duties imposed upon it; 
and the taxes which it lays upon commerce being con- 
cealed from the real payer in the price of the article, 
they do not so readily attract the attention of the people 
as smaller sums demanded from them directly by the 

477 



APPENDIX 

tax-gatherer. But the tax imposed on goods, enhances 
by so much the price of the commodity to the consumer ; 
and as many of these duties are imposed on articles of 
necessity which are daily used by the great body of 
the people, the money raised by these imposts is drawn 
from their pockets. Congress has no right under the 
constitution to take money from the people, unless it is 
required to execute some one of the specific powers in- 
trusted to the government ; and if they raise more than 
is necessary for such purposes, it is an abuse of the 
power of taxation, and unjust and oppressive. It may 
indeed happen that the revenue will sometimes exceed 
the amount anticipated when the taxes were laid. When, 
however, this is ascertained, it is easy to reduce them ; 
and in such a case it is unquestionably the duty of the 
government to reduce them, for no circumstances can 
justify it in assuming a power not given to it by the 
constitution, nor in taking away the money of the people 
when it is not needed for the legitimate wants of the 
government. 

Plain as these principles appear to be, you will yet find 
that there is a constant effort to induce the general gov- 
ernment to go beyond the limits of its taxing power, 
and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people. 
Many powerful interests are continually at work to pro- 
cure heavy duties on commerce, and to swell the revenue 
beyond the real necessities of the public service ; and 
the country has already felt the injurious effects of their 
combined influence. They succeeded in obtaining a 
tariff of duties bearing most oppressively on the agri- 
cultural and labouring classes of society, and producing 
a revenue that could not be usefully employed within the 
range of the powers conferred upon Congress ; and, in 
order to fasten upon the people this unjust and unequal 
system of taxation, extravagant schemes of internal im- 
provement were got up, in various quarters, to squander 
the money and to purchase support. Thus, one uncon- 
stitutional measure was intended to be upheld by an- 
other, and the abuse of the power of taxation was to be 
maintained bv usurping the power of expending the 

478 



APPENDIX 

money in internal improvements. You cannot have for- 
gotten the severe and doubtful struggle through which 
we passed when the executive department of the gov- 
ernment, by its veto, endeavoured to arrest this prodigal 
scheme of injustice, and to bring back the legislation of 
Congress to the boundaries prescribed by the constitu- 
tion. The good sense and practical judgment of the 
people, when the subject was brought before them, sus- 
tained the course of the executive, and this plan of un- 
constitutional expenditure for the purposes of corrupt 
influence is, I trust, finally overthrown. 

The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid 
extinguishment of the public debt, and the large accu- 
mulation of a surplus in the treasury, notwithstanding 
the tariff was reduced, and is now far below the amount 
originally contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon 
it, the design to collect an extravagant revenue, and to 
burden you with taxes beyond the economical wants of 
the government, is not yet abandoned. The various in- 
terests which have combined together to impose a heavy 
tariff, and to produce an overflowing treasury, are too 
strong, and have too much at stake, to surrender the 
contest. The corporations and wealthy individuals who 
are engaged in large manufacturing establishments, de- 
sire a high tariff to increase their gains. Designing pol- 
iticians will support it to conciliate their favour, and to 
obtain the means of profuse expenditure, for the pur- 
pose of purchasing influence in other quarters; and 
since the people have decided that the federal govern- 
ment cannot be permitted to employ its income in in- 
ternal improvements, efforts will be made to seduce and 
mislead the citizens of the several states, by holding out 
to them the deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived 
from a surplus revenue collected by the general gov- 
ernment, and annually divided among the states. And, 
if encouraged by these fallacious hopes, the states should 
disregard the principles of economy which ought to 
characterize every republican government, and should 
indulge in lavish expenditures exceeding their resources, 
they will, before long, find themselves oppressed with 

479 



APPENDIX 

debts which they are unable to pay, and the tempta- 
tion will become irresistible to support a high tariff, in 
order to obtain a surplus distribution. Do not allow 
yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled on this sub- 
ject. The federal government cannot collect a surplus 
for such purposes, without violating the principles of 
the constitution, and assuming powers which have not 
been granted. It is, moreover, a system of injustice, 
and, if persisted in, will inevitably lead to corruption, 
and must end in ruin. The surplus revenue will be 
drawn from the pockets of the people, — from the farmer, 
the mechanic, and the labouring classes of society ; but 
who will receive it when distributed among the states, 
where it is to be disposed of by leading state politicians 
who have friends to favour, and political partisans to 
gratify? It will certainly not be returned to those who 
paid it, and who have most need of it, and are honestly 
entitled to it. There is but one safe rule, and that is, to 
confine the general government rigidly within the sphere 
of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise a 
revenue, or impose taxes, except for the purposes enu- 
merated in the constitution ; and if its income is found 
to exceed these wants, it should be forthwith reduced, 
and the burdens of the people so far lightened. 

In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place be- 
tween different interests in the United States, and the 
policy pursued since the adoption of our present form of 
government, we find nothing that has produced such 
deep-seated evils as the course of legislation in relation 
to the currency. The constitution of the United States 
unquestionably intended to secure to the people a circu- 
lating medium of gold and silver. But the establishment 
of a national bank by Congress, with the privilege of 
issuing paper money receivable in the payment of the 
public dues, and the unfortunate course of legislation 
in the several states upon the same subject, drove from 
general circulation the constitutional currency, and sub- 
stituted one of paper in its place. 

It was not easy for men engaged in the ordinary pur- 
suits of business, whose attention had not been particu- 

480 



APPENDIX 

larly drawn to the subject, to foresee all the conse- 
quences of a currency exclusively of paper, and we 
ought not, on that account, to be surprised at 'the facil- 
ity with which laws were obtained to carry into effect 
the paper system. Honest, and even enlightened men, 
are sometimes misled by the specious and plausible state- 
ments oi the designing. But experience has now proved 
the mischiefs and dangers of a paper currency, and it 
rests with you to determine whether the proper remedy 
shall be applied. 

The paper system being founded on public confidence, 
and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to 
great and sudden fluctuations ; thereby rendering prop- 
erty insecure, and the wages of labour unsteady and 
uncertain. The corporations which create the paper 
money, cannot be relied upon to keep the circulating me- 
dium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when 
confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of 
gain, or by the influence of those who hope to profit by 
it, to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of 
discretion and the reasonable demands of business. And 
when these issues have been pushed on, from day to day, 
until public confidence is at length shaken, then a reac- 
tion takes place, and they immediately withdraw the 
credits they have given, suddenly curtail their issues, and 
produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the 
circulating medium, which is felt by the whole commu- 
nity. The banks by this means save themselves, and 
the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or 
cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil 
stop here. These ebbs and flows in the currency, and 
these indiscreet extensions of credit, naturally engender 
a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and char- 
acter of the people. We have already seen its effects in 
the wild spirit of speculation in the public lands, and 
various kinds of stock, which within the last year or 
two, seized upon such a multitude of our citizens, and 
threatened to pervade all classes of society and to with- 
draw their attention from the sober pursuits of honest 
industry. It is not by encouraging this spirit that we 

31 481 



APPENDIX 

shall best preserve public virtue and promote the true 
interests of our country. But if your currency continues 
as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager 
desire to amass wealth without labour ; it will multiply 
the number of dependants on bank accommodations and 
bank favours ; the temptation to obtain money at any 
sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and inevita- 
bly lead to corruption, which will find its way into your 
councils, and destroy, at no distant day, the purity of 
your government. Some of the evils which arise from 
this system of paper, press with peculiar hardship upon 
the class of society least able to bear it. A portion of this 
currency frequently becomes depreciated or worthless, 
and all of it is easily counterfeited in such a manner as 
to recjuire peculiar skill and much experience to distin- 
guish the counterfeit from the genuine note. These 
frauds are most generally perpetrated in the smaller 
notes, which are used in the daily transactions of or- 
dinary business, and the losses occasioned by them are 
commonly thrown upon the labouring classes of society, 
whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power to 
guard themselves from these impositions, and whose 
daily wages are necessary for their subsistence. It is 
the duty of every government so to regulate its currency 
as to protect this numerous class as far as practicable 
from the imposition of avarice and fraud. It is more 
especially the duty of the United States, where the gov- 
ernment is emphatically the government of the people, 
and Avhere this respectable portion of our citizens are so 
proudly distinguished from the labouring classes of all 
other nations, by their independent spirit, their love of 
liberty, their intelligence, their high tone of moral char- 
acter. Their industry in peace is the source of our 
wealth, and their bravery in war has covered us with 
glory, and the government of the United States will but 
ill discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey to such 
dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that their in- 
terests cannot be effectually protected, unless silver and 
gold are restored to circulation. 

These views alone, of the paper currency, are suffi- 

48:? 



APPENDIX 

cient to call for immediate reform ; but there is another 
consideration which should still more strongly press it 
upon your attention. 

Recent events have proved that the paper money sys- 
tem of this country may be used as an engine to under- 
mine your free institutions, and that those who desire 
to engross all power in the hands of the few, and to 
govern by corruption or force, are aware of its power, 
and prepared to employ it. Your banks now furnish 
your only circulating medium, and money is plenty or 
scarce, according to the quantity of notes issued by them. 
While they have capitals not greatly disproportioned to 
each other, they are competitors in business, and no one 
of them can exercise dominion over the rest; and 
although, in the present state of the currency, these 
banks may and do operate injuriously upon the habits 
of business, the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone 
of society, yet from their number and dispersed situa- 
tion, they cannot combine for the purposes of political 
influence; and whatever may be the disposition of some 
of them, their power of mischief must necessarily be 
confined to a narrow space, and felt only in their own 
immediate neighborhoods. 

But when the charter for the Bank of the United 
States was obtained from Congress, it perfected the 
schemes of the paper system, and gave to its advocates 
the position they have struggled to obtain from the 
commencement of the federal government down to the 
present hour. The immense capital and peculiar priv- 
ileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise despotic 
sway over the other banks in every part of the country. 
From its superior strength, it could seriously injure, 
if not destroy, the business of any one of them which 
might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for 
itself the power of regulating the currency throughout 
the United States. In other words, it asserted (and 
undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty 
or scarce, at its pleasure, at any time, and in any quar- 
ter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other 
banks, and permitting an expansion, or compelling a 

483 



APPENDIX 

general contraction, of the circulating medium, accord- 
ing to its own will. The other banking institutions were 
sensible of its strength, and they soon generally became 
its obedient instruments, ready at all times to execute 
its mandates ; and with the banks necessarily went also 
that numerous class of persons in our commercial cities 
who depend altogether on bank credits for their sol- 
vency and means of business; and who are, therefore, 
obliged, for their own safety, to propitiate the favour 
of the money power by distinguished zeal and devotion 
in its service. The result of the ill-advised legislation 
which established this great monopoly was to concen- 
trate the whole moneyed power of the Union, with its 
boundless means of corruption, and its numerous de- 
pendants, under the direction and command of one 
acknowledged head ; thus organizing this particular in- 
terest as one body, and securing to it unity and concert 
of action throughout the United States, and enabling 
it to bring forward, upon any occasion, its entire and 
undivided strength to support or defeat any measure 
of the government. In the hands of this formidable 
power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed un- 
limited dominion over the amount of the circulating 
medium, giving it the power to regulate the value of 
property and the fruits of labour in every quarter of 
the Union ; and to bestow prosperity,, or bring ruin 
upon any city or section of the country, as might best 
comport with its own interest or policy. 

We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed 
power, thus organized, and wath such a weapon in its 
hands, would be likely to use it. The distress and alarm 
which pervaded and agitated the whole country, when 
the Bank of the United States waged war upon the peo- 
ple in order to compel them to submit to its demands, 
cannot yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing- 
temper with which whole cities and communities were 
oppressed, individuals impoverished and ruined, and a 
scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly changed into one 
of gloom and despondency, ought to be indelibly im- 
pressed on the memorv of the people of the United 

484 



APPENDIX 

States. If such was its power in a time of peace, what 
would it not have been in a season of war, with an 
enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of 
the United States could have come out victorious from 
such a contest ; yet, if you had not conquered, the gov- 
ernment would have passed from the hands of the 
many to the hands of the few ; and this organized money 
power, from its secret conclave, would have dictated 
the choice of your highest officers, and compelled you 
to make peace or war, as best suited to their own wishes. 
The forms of your government might for a time have 
remained, but its living spirit would have departed 
from it. 

The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by 
the bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy 
which is continually striving to enlarge the authority of 
the federal government beyond the limits fixed by the 
constitution. The powers enumerated in that instru- 
ment do not confer on Congress the right to establish 
such a corporation as the Bank of the United States; 
and the evil consequences which followed may warn us 
of the danger of departing from the true rule of con- 
struction, and of permitting temporary circumstances, 
or the hope of better promoting the public welfare, to 
influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of 
the authority of the general government. Let us abide 
by the constitution as it is written, or amend it in the 
constitutional mode if it is found to be defective. 

The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be 
sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering 
such a monopoly, even if the constitution did not pre- 
sent an insuperable objection to it. But you must re- 
member, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the 
people is the price of liberty; and that you must pay 
the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves 
you. therefore, to be watchful in your states, as well as 
in tile federal government. The power which the mon- 
eyed interest can exercise, when concentrated under a 
single head, and with our present system of currency, 
was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by 

485 



APPENDIX 

the Bank of the United States. Defeated in the general 
government, the same class of intriguers and politicians 
will now resort to the states, and endeavor to obtain 
there the same organization, which they failed to per- 
petuate in the Union ; and with specious and deceitful 
plans of public advantages, and state interests, and state 
pride, they will endeavour to establish, in the different 
states, one moneyed institution with overgrown capital, 
and exclusive privileges sufficient to enable it to control 
the operations of the other banks. Such an institution 
will be pregnant with the same evils produced by the 
Bank of the United States, although its sphere of action 
is more confined ; and in the state in which it is char- 
tered, the money power will be able to imbody its whole 
strength, and to move together with undivided force, 
to accomplish any object it may wish to attain. You 
have already had abundant evidence of its power to inflict 
injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, and labour- 
ing classes of society ; and over those whose engage- 
ments in trade or speculation render them dependent 
on bank facilities, the dominion of the state monop- 
oly will be absolute, and their obedience unlimited. 
With such a bank, and a paper currency, the money 
power would in a few years govern the state and con- 
trol its measures ; and if a sufficient number of states 
can be induced to create such establishments, the time 
will soon come when it will again take field against the 
United States, and succeed in perfecting and perpetuat- 
ing its organization by a charter from Congress. 

It is one of the serious evils of our present system 
of banking", that it enables one class of societv — and 
that by no means a numerous one — by its control over 
the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all 
the others, and to exercise more than its just propor- 
tion of influence in political affairs. The agricultural, 
the mechanical, and the labouring classes, have little 
or no share in the direction of the great moneyed cor- 
porations : and from their habits and the nature of their 
pursuits, they are incapable of forming extensive com- 
binations to act together with united force. Such con- 

486 



APPENDIX 

cert of action may sometimes be produced in a single 
city, or in a small district of country, by means of 
personal communications with each other; but thev 
have no regular or active correspondence with those 
who are engaged in similar pursuits in distant places ; 
they have but little patronage to give to the press, and 
exercise but a small share of influence over it ; thev 
have no crowd of dependents about them, who hope 
to grow rich without labour, by their countenance and 
favour, and who are, therefore, always ready to exe- 
cute their wishes. The planter, the farmer, the me- 
chanic, and the labourer, all know that their success 
depends upon their own industry and economy, and 
that they must not expect to become suddenly rich by 
the fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of society 
form the great body of the people of the United States ; 
they are the bone and sinew of the country ; men who 
love liberty, and desire nothing but equal rights and 
equal laws, and who, moreover, hold the great mass of 
our national wealth, although it is distributed in mod- 
erate amounts among the millions of freemen who pos- 
sess it. But with overwhelming numbers and wealth on 
their side, they are in constant danger of losing their 
fair influence in the government, and with difficulty 
maintain their just rights against the incessant efforts 
daily made to encroach upon them. 

The mischief springs from the power which the mon- 
eyed interest derives from a paper currency which they 
are able to control, from the multitude of corporations 
with exclusive privileges, which they have succeeded 
in obtaining in the different states, and which are em- 
ployed altogether for their benefit, and unless you be- 
come more watchful in your states, and check this spirit 
of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will, 
in the end, find that the most important powers of gov- 
ernment have been given or bartered away, and the 
control over your dearest interests has passed into the 
hands of these corporations. 

The paper money system, and its natural associates, 
monopolv and exclusive privileges, have alreadv struck 

487 



APPENDIX 

their roots deep in the soil, and it will require all your 
efforts to check their further growth, and to eradicate 
the evil. The men who profit by the abuses, and desire 
to perpetuate them, will continue to besiege the halls of 
legislation in the general government as well as in the 
states, and will seek, by every artifice, to mislead and 
deceive the public servants. It is to yourselves that you 
must look for safety, and the means of guarding and 
perpetuating 3'our free institutions. In your hands is 
rightfully placed the sovereignty of the country, and 
to you every one placed in authority is ultimately re- 
sponsible. It is always in your power to see that the 
wishes of the people are carried into faithful execution, 
and their will, when once made known, must sooner 
or later be obeyed. And while the people remain, as 
I trust they ever will, uncorrupted and incorruptible, 
and continue watchful and jealous of their rights, the 
government is safe, and the cause of freedom will con- 
tinue to triumph over all its enemies. 

But it will require steady and persevering exertions 
on your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mis- 
chiefs of the paper system, and to check the spirit of 
monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with 
it, and of which it is the main support. So many in- 
terests are united to resist all reform on this subject, 
that you must not hope the conflict will be a short one, 
nor success easy. 

My humble efforts have not been spared during my 
administration of the government, to restore the con- 
stitutional currency of gold and silver, and something, 
I trust, has been done towards the accomplishment of 
this most desirable object. But enough yet remains to 
require all your energy and perseverance. The power, 
however, is in your hands, and the remedy must and 
will be applied, if you determine upon it. 

While I am thus endeavouring to press upon your at- 
tention the principles which I deem of vital importance 
in the domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to 
pass over, without notice, the important considerations 
which should govern your policv towards foreign pow- 

488 



APPENDIX 

ers. It is unquestionably our true interest to cultivate 
the most friendly understanding with every nation, and 
to avoid, by every honourable means, the calamities of 
war; and we shall best attain this object by frankness 
and sincerity in our foreign intercourse, by the prompt 
and faithful execution of treaties, and by justice and 
impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, how- 
ever desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional 
collisions with other powers; and the soundest dic- 
tates of policy require that we should place ourselves in 
a condition to assert our rights, if a resort to force 
should ever become necessary. Our local situation, our 
long line of sea-coast, indented by numerous bays, with 
deep rivers opening into the interior, as well as our 
extended and still increasing commerce, point to the 
navy as our natural means of defence. It will, in the 
end, be found to be the cheapest and most effectual ; 
and now is the time, in a season of peace, and with an 
overflowing revenue, that we can, year after year, add 
to its strength without increasing the burdens of the 
people. It is your true policy ; for your navy will not 
only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in 
distant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the 
enemy, and will give to defence its greatest efficiency, 
by meeting danger at a distance from home. It is im- 
possible, by any line of fortifications, to guard every 
point from attack against a hostile force advancing from 
the ocean, and selecting its object ; but they are indis- 
pensable to protect cities from bombardment ; dock- 
yards and naval arsenals from destruction ; to give 
shelter to merchant vesels in time of war, and to single 
ships of weaker squadrons when pressed by superior 
force. Fortifications of this description cannot be too 
soon completed and armed, and placed in a condition 
of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means 
we now possess cannot be applied in any manner more 
useful to the country; and when this is done, and our 
naval force sufficiently strengthened, and our militia 
armed, we need not fear that any nation will wantonly 
insult us, or needlessly provoke hostilities. We shall 

489 



APPENDIX 

hiore certainly preserve peace, when it is well under- 
stood that we are prepared for war. 

In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these part- 
ing counsels, I have brought before you the leading 
principles upon which I endeavoured to administer the 
government in the high office with which you have twice 
honoured me. Knowing that the path of freedom is 
continually beset by enemies, who often assume the dis- 
guise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my 
public life to warn you of the dangers. The progress 
of the United States under our free and happy institu- 
tions, has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the 
founders of the republic. Our growth has been rapid 
beyond all former example, in numbers, in wealth, in 
knowledge, and all the useful arts which contribute to 
the comforts and convenience of man ; and from the 
earliest ages of history to the present day, there never 
have been thirteen millions of people associated to- 
gether in one political body, who enjoyed so much 
freedom and happiness as the people of these United 
States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger 
from abroad ; your strength and power are well known 
throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and 
gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among 
yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from dis- 
appointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power, 
that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It 
is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors 
may assume, that you have especially to guard your- 
selves. You have the highest of human trusts com- 
mitted to your care. Providence has showered on this 
favoured land blessings without number, and has chosen 
you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the 
benefit of the human race. May He, who holds in his 
hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the 
favours he has bestowed, and enable you, with pure 
hearts, and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard 
and defend, to the end of time, the great charge he has 
committed to your keeping. 

My own race is nearly run ; advanced age and failing 

490 



APPENDIX 

health warn me that before long, I must pass beyond 
the reach of human events, and cease to feel the vicissi- 
tudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has 
been spent in a land of liberty, and that he has given me 
a heart to love my country with the affection of a son. 
And, filled with gratitude for your constant and unwav- 
ering kindness, I now bid you a last and affectionate 
farewell. 

Andrew Jackson. 



491 



Appendix E 

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 

OF 

• ANDREW JACKSON. 

Hermitage, June yth, 1843. 

In the Name of God, Amen : — I, Andrew Jackson, 
Sen'r., being of sound mind, memory, and understand- 
ing, and impressed with the great uncertainty of life 
and the certainty of death, and being desirous to dispose 
of my temporal affairs so that after my death no con- 
tention may arise relative to the same — And whereas, 
since executing my will of the 30th of September, 1833, 
my estate has become greatly involved by my liabilities 
for the debts of my well-beloved and adopted son An- 
drew Jackson, Jun., which makes it necessary to alter 
the same : Therefore I, Andrew Jackson, Sen'r., of 
the county of Davidson, and state of Tennessee, do 
make, ordain, publish, and declare this my last will and 
testament, revoking all other wills by me heretofore 
made. 

First, I bequeath my body to the dust whence it 
comes, and my soul to God who gave it, hoping for a 
happy immortality through the atoning merits of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. My de- 
sire is, that my body be buried by the side of my dear 
departed wife, in the garden at the Hermitage, in the 
vault prepared in the garden, and all expenses paid by 
my executor hereafter named. 

Secondly, That all my just debts be paid out of my 
personal and real estate by my executor; for which 
purpose to meet the debt my good friends Gen'l. J. B. 
Planchin & Co. of New Orleans, for the sum of six 
thousand dollars, with the interest accruing thereon, 

492 



APPENDIX 

loaned to me to meet the debt due by A. Jackson, Jun., 
for the purchase of the plantation from Hiram G. Run- 
nels, lying- on the east bank of the river Mississippi, in 
the state of Mississippi. Also, a debt due by mc of 
ten thousand dollars, borrowed of my friends Blair and 
Rives, of the city of Washington and District of Colum- 
bia, with the interest accruing thereon; being applied 
to the payment of the lands bought of Hiram G. Run- 
nels as aforesaid, and for the faithful payment of the 
aforesaid recited debts, I hereby bequeath all my real 
and personal estate. After these debts are fully paid — 

Thirdly, I give and bequeath to my adopted son, An- 
drew Jackson, Junior, the tract of land whereon I now 
live, known by the Hermitage tract, with its butts and 
boundaries, with all its appendages of the three lots of 
land bought of Samuel Donelson, Thomas J. Donelson. 
and Alexander Donelson, sons and heirs of Sovern 
Donelson, deceased, all adjoining the Hermitage tract, 
agreeable to their butts and boundaries, with all the ap- 
purtenances thereto belonging or in any wise appertain- 
ing, with all my negroes that I may die possessed of, 
with the exception hereafter named, with all their in- 
crease after the before recited debts are fully paid, with 
all the household furniture, farming tools, stock of all 
kind, both on the Hermitage tract farms, as well as 
those on the Mississippi plantation, to him and his heirs 
for ever. — The true intent and meaning of this my last 
will and testament is, that all my estate, real personal, 
and mixed, is hereby first pledged for the payment of 
the above recited debts and interest ; and when they are 
fully paid, the residue of all my estate, real, personal, 
and mixed, is hereby bequeathed to my adopted son A. 
Jackson, Jun., with the exceptions hereafter named, to 
him and his heirs for ever. 

Fourth, Whereas I have heretofore by conveyance, 
deposited wdth my beloved daughter Sarah Jackson, 
wife of my adopted son A. Jackson, Jun., given to my 
beloved granddaughter, Rachel Jackson, daughter of A. 
Jackson, Jun. and Sarah his wife, several negroes 
therein described, which I hereby confirm.— I give and 

493 



APPENDIX 

bequeath to my beloved grandson Andrew Jackson, son 
of A. Jackson, Jun. and Sarah his wife, a negro boy 
named Ned, son of Blacksmith Aaron and Hannah 
his wife, to him and his heirs for ever. 

Fifth, I give and bequeath to my beloved little grand- 
son, Samuel Jackson, son of A. Jackson, Jun. and his 
much beloved wife Sarah, one negro boy named Davy 
or George, son of Squire and his wife Giney, to him and 
his heirs for ever. 

Sixth, To my beloved and affectionate daughter. 
Sarah Jackson, wife of my adopted and well beloved 
son, A. Jackson, Jun., I hereby recognise, by this be- 
quest, the gift I made her on her marriage, of the negro 
girl Gracey, which I bought for her, and gave to my 
daughter Sarah as her maid and seamstress, with her 
increase, with my house-servant Hanna and her two 
daughters, namely, Charlotte and Mary, to her and her 
heirs for ever. This gift and bequest is made for my 
great affection for her — as a memento of her uniform 
attention to me and kindness on all occasions, and par- 
ticularly when worn down with sickness, pain, and de- 
bility — she has been more than a daughter to me, and 
I hope she never will be disturbed in the enjoyment of 
this gift and bequest by any one. 

Seventh, I bequeath to my well beloved nephew, An- 
drew J. Donelson, son of Samuel Donelson, deceased, 
the elegant sword presented to me by the state of Ten- 
nessee, with this injunction, that he fail not to use it 
when necessary in support and protection of our glor- 
ious union, and for the protection of the constitutional 
rights of our beloved country, should they be assailed by 
foreign enemies or domestic traitors. This, from the 
great change in my worldly affairs of late, is, with my 
blessing, all I can bequeath him, doing justice to those 
creditors to whom I am responsible. This bequest is 
made as a memento of my high regard, affection, and 
esteem I bear for him as a high-minded, honest, and 
honourable man. 

Eighth, To my grand-nephew Andrew Jackson Cof- 
fee, i bequeath the elegant sword presented to me by 

494 



APPENDIX 

the Rifle Company of New Orleans, commanded by 
Capt. Beal, as a memento of my regard, and to bring 
to his recollection the gallant services of his deceased 
father Gen'l. John Coffee, in the late Indian and British 
war, under my command, and his gallant conduct in 
defence of New Orleans in 1814 and 1815; with this 
injunction, that he wield it in the protection of the 
rights secured to the American citizen under our glor- 
ious constitution, against all invaders, whether foreign 
foes, or intestine traitors. 

I bequeath to my beloved grandson Andrew Jackson, 
son of A. Jackson, Jun. and Sarah his wife, the sword 
presented to me by the citizens of Philadelphia, with 
this injunction, that he will always use it in defence of 
the constitution and our glorious union, and the per- 
petuation of our republican system: remembering the 
motto — " Draw me not without occasion, nor sheath 
me without honour." 

The pistols of Gen'l. Lafayette, which were presented 
by him to Gen'l. George Washington, and by Col. Wm. 
Robertson presented to me, I bequeath to George Wash- 
ington Lafayette, as a memento of the illustrious per- 
sonages through whose hands they have passed — his 
father, and the father of his country. 

The gold box presented to me by the corporation of 
the City of New York, the large silver vase presented 
to me by the ladies of Charleston, South Carolina, my 
native state, with the large picture representing the un- 
furling of the American banner, presented to me by 
the citizens of South Carolina when it was refused to 
be accepted by the United States Senate, I leave in trust 
to my son A. Jackson, Jun., with directions that should 
our happy country not be blessed with peace, an event 
not always to be expected, he will at the close of_ the 
war or end of the conflict, present each of said articles 
of inestimable value, to that patriot residing in the city 
or state from which they were presented, who shall be 
adjudged by his countrymen or the ladies to have been 
the most valiant in defence of his country and our coun- 
try's rights. 

495 



APPENDIX 

The pocket spyglass which was used by Gen'l. Wash- 
ington during the revolutionary war, and presented to 
me by Mr. Custis, having been burned with my dwell- 
ing-house, the Hermitage, with many other invaluable 
relics, I can make no disposition of them. As a me- 
mento of my high regard for Gen'l. Robert Armstrong 
as a gentleman, patriot, and soldier, as well as for his 
meritorious military services under my command dur- 
ing the late British and Indian war, and remembering 
the gallant bearing of him and his gallant little band at 
Enotochopco creek, when, falling desperately wounded, 
he called out — " My brave fellows, some may fall, but 
save the cannon" — as a memento of all these things, i 
give and bequeath to him my case of pistols and sword 
worn by me throughout my military career, well satis- 
fied that in his hands they will never be disgraced — 
that they will never be used or drawn without occasion, 
nor sheathed but with honour. 

Lastly, I leave to my beloved son all my walking- 
canes and other relics, to be distributed amongst my 
young relatives — namesakes — first, to my much es- 
teemed namesake, Andrew J. Donelson, son of my es- 
teemed nephew A. J. Donelson, his first choice, and 
then to be distributed as A. Jackson, Jun. may think 
proper. 

Lastly, I appoint my adopted son Andrew Jackson, 
Jun., my whole and sole executor to this my last will 
and testament, and direct that no security be required 
of him for the faithful execution and discharge of the 
trusts hereby reposed in him. 

In testimony whereof I have this 7th day of June, 
one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, hereunto 
set my hand, and afiixed my seal, hereby revoking all 
wills heretofore made by me, and in the presence of 

Marion Adams, 

Elizabeth D. Love, 

Thos. J. Donelson, 

Richard Smith, 

R, Armstrong. 

Andrew Jackson. (Seal) 
496 



Index 



Adair, General, 87, 96, 104, 176, 
222. 

Adams, Charles Francis, quo- 
tation from, 95. 

Adams, John Quincy, 116, 147, 
173, 190, 251, 260, 268, 272, 
290, 294, 29s, 342. 

Addresses, 250-278. 468-491. 

Allen, Governor William, 106, 
258. 

Ambrister, III, 113, 115, 190, 

208. 

American flag, 216, 256. 
Anderson, Patten, 62, 214. 
Anecdotes, 42, 44, 102, 122, 133, 

167, 198, 212, 213. 
Arbuckle, Colonel, 45. 
Arbuthnot, III, 113, 114, 190, 

208. 
Arthur, Chester A., 56. 
Assassinate, attempt to, 248. 
Avery, Colonel, 61, 220. 
Baltimore, banquet in, 265. 
Bancroft, George, oration by, 

414. 
Barry, Postmaster-G«neral, 

187, 189. 
Barton, Mr., 160. 
Beck, Doctor, 270. 
Benton, Jesse, 232. 
Benton, Thomas H., 51, 52, "72,, 

119, 162, 232, 244, 251, 269, 

313, 317, 323, 341, 361, 365- 



Berrien, John McPhcrson, 189. 
BiDDLE, Nicholas, 251, 309, 351, 

353. 
Blair, Francis P., 29, 68, 88, 

157, 275, 367. 
Blount, Governor, 41, 86, 118. 
Bonaparte, Mrs. Jerome, 268. 
Books, 67, 68, 377. 
Boston bankers, 57. 
BowEN, Francis, 269. 
BoYKiN, J., 416, 429. 
Branch, John, 189. 

, letter from, 195. 

. letter to, 194. 

Breckinridge, Judge, 288. 
Brooks, Francis, 291. 
Brown, Jacob, 68. 
Brown, Dr. John, 27. 
Buchanan, James, 268, 338. 
BuFORD, Lt. Col. Abraham, 34. 
Burchard, Dr., 300. 
Burr, Aaron, 56, 316, 367. 

, ball in honor of, 145. 

, dinner to, 257. 

, expedition, 216. 

, trial of, 255. 

Butler, Benjamin F., 116. 

, W. O., 104, 123, 143, 245. 

Cabinet, the, 182, 188, 189, 190, 

192, 196, 208, 215, 254. 
Calhoun, John C, 190, 244, 

251, 309. 321, zyj, 341- 
Call, General, 180. 



32 



497 



INDEX 



Callava, Governor, 49. 
Cambridge, trip to, 269. 
Campbell, George W., 62. 
Campbell, Rev. Dr., 185, 187. 
Carrickfergus, 27. 
Carroll, General, 87, 89, 90, 

104, 130, 176, 245, 264. 
Cartwright, Peter, 368-370. 
Catlett, Dr., 230. 
Charitable Irish Society of 

Boston, 29. 
Charleston Harbor, 323- 
Chesapeake, attack on, 255. 
Choutard, Mile., 143. 
City Hotel, 233, 234, 235. 
Civil War, 334. 
Claiborne, Governor, 216. 
Clay, Henry, 105, 115, 219, 243, 

244, 251, 291, 293, 294, 29s, 

309, 347, 358, 362. 
• , dinner party to daughter 

of, 205. 
Clinton, De Witt, 236. 
CoBBETT, William, 413. 
Cochrane, Admiral, 91. 
Coffee, General, 57, 58, 70, 82, 

83, 87, 89, 118, 130, 176, 233, 

264. 
Colden, Major, 266. 
Cole, General, 171. 
Concord, at, 274. 
Congress, 282, 305, 334, 342. 
, message to, 280. 



Crawford, Martin P., 420. 
, William H., 26, 191, 251, 

294. 
Crawfords, the, 26, 137, 160, 

421, 424. 
Creek War, 64, 67, 69, 72, 75, 

81, 82, 1x8, 130, 260. 
, treaty which closed, 80. 



Constitution, amendment to, 

303- 
Craighead, Parson, 370. 
Crawford, James, 424. 
, Major Robert, 420, 430, 

436. 



Crockett, R. M., 130, 131, 415. 
Cureton, Thomas, 430-433. 
Dale, General Samuel, 328. 
Davie, William Richardson, 26, 

34. 35- 
Daviess, Jo., 258. 
Davis, Charles A., 271. 
Declaration of Independence, 

260. 
Democracy, 343. 
Democrat, 338. 
Democratic Party, 259, 301, 

326, 352. 
Dickinson, Charles, 59, 162, 

164, 225-231, 256, 368. 
Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 

201. 

, Captain, 289. 

, Major, 82, 327. 

, Mrs., 162, 188. 

, Mrs. Emily, 372. 

, Rachel, see Jackson. 

Douglass, Stephen, 338. 
Downing, Jack, see Davis. 
Duane, Secretary of Treas- 
ury, 353. 
DuBOURG, Abbe, 262. 
Duels, 220-249. 
Durbin, Professor, 371. 
Eaton, John H., 85, 102, 118, 

158, 181, 182, 189, 193. 
498 



INDEX 



Eaton, Mrs. Margaret, 179- 
199. 

Edgar, Dr., 314, 374, 388. 

Edwards, Jonathan, 222. 

Elliott, Jesse D., correspond- 
ence with, 275-278. 

Ely, Rev. Dr., 182, 185, 187. 

EssELMAN, Dr., 384, 385. 

Farewell Address, 468-491. 

Farragut, David G., 333. 

Faulkner, James, 424, 427. 

Federal Party, 260, 301. 

Federal Union, 321, 327. 

Financial crisis, 363. 

Florida campaigns, 85, iii, 
190, 266. 

Floyd, General, 70. 

Force bill, 334. 

Fromentin, Judge Elijius, 49. 

Gadsden, James, 411. 

Gallatin, 107, 341, 345- 

Ghent, Treaty of, 107. 

GiROD, Nicholas, 126. 

Gordon, Captain Kennedy, TJ. 

Grundy, Felix, 263. 

Guild, Judge, 42. 

Hall, Judge Dominick, 45. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 337, 340. 

353- 

, Colonel James A., 295. 

Hammond, Governor, 409. 
Harrison, William Henry, 43, 

68, 85, 109. 
Hawkins, Benjamin, 71. 
Hayne, Colonel, 125, 251, zzi. 
Hays, Stokely, 237. 
Hearst, William Randolph, 

quotation from. 259. 
Henderson, Wm., 208. 



Hermitage, the, 53, 54, (i-j, 124, 
158, 166, 167, 170, 204, 217, 
265, 303,' 354, 369,^ 374. 409. 
413. 

Hibernian Society of Phila- 
delphia, 28. 

Hill, Isaac, 273, 358. 

Hutchinson, Elizabeth, 26. 

, father of, 29. 



Indian Territory, 281. 
Ingham, Samuel D., 189, 353. 
Irish president, 28. 
Jackson, Andrew, Alexandria, 

at, 247 
, ancestry of, 29, no, 419, 



421. 



— , anecdotes of, 42, 44, 102, 
122, 133, 167, 198, 212, 213. 
— , armies of, "jz, 76, ll- 
— , attempt to assassinate, 



248. 

— attitude towards Con- 
gress, 305. 

— , attorney, 252. 

— , "backwoods soldier," 113, 



132. 

— , bank hater, 58. 
— , battle tactics of, 82. 
— , benevolent, 54. _ 

— , bills of exchange, 120. 
— , birthday dinner, 149. 
— , birthplace of, 25, 407-438. 
— , Boston, visit to, 149, 328. 
— , bust of, 416. 
— , captain, considered as, 69. 
— , character of, 58, 300. 

— , , misconceived in, 141. 

— , Charleston, visit to, 6q. 



138. 



499 



INDEX 



Jackson, Andrew, chief jus- Jackson, Andrew, fond of 



tice, 66. 

— , combination against, 43. 
— , commercial reputation of. 



57. 



— , Congressman, 40. 
— , daughter of, 376, 2,71, 387- 
— , daughter-in-law of, 385. 
— , dauntless courage, 40. 
— , dealer in slaves, 53. 
— , decision of character, 58. 
— , declined mission to 
Mexico, 50. 
— , delicate sense of honor, 

135- 

— , democrat, was a, 133. 
— , description of, 142. 
— , difficulties, propensity for. 



50. 

— , dignity of, 51. 
— , disliked the English, 34, 

36, 109, 217. 

— , Doctor of Laws, 33, 269. 
— , domestic in habits, 62,. 
— , duels of, 220-249. 
— , education of, 31, 32. 
— , election of, 301. 
— , electoral vote for, 285. 
— , episodes of, 104, 130, 246. 
— , father of, 29, 157, 158, 



421. 

— , favorite servant of, 137. 
— , feminine view of, 146. 
— , financier, 2,Z- 
— , first biography of, 410. 
— , first term as President, 

303. 
— , followed own instincts. 



119. 



books, 58. 

— , funeral of, 388, 389. 
— , Gallatin's view of, 150. 
— , grandchildren of, 386. 
— , grandfather of, 27, 160. 
— , great-grandfather of, 28. 
— , Governor of Florida, 48. 
— , had North Ireland 

brogue, 137. 

— , hospitality of, 54, 55. 
— , illness of, 43, ^2, 119, 165, 

172, ZZl- 

— , incidents of, 60. 

— , inclination, 53. 

— , indomitable will, 72. 

— , innately polite, 134. 

— , integrity personified, 308. 

— , intensity of purpose, 165. 

— , Irish president, 28. 

— , Jefferson's view of, 150. 

— , Jonesboro, practised at. 



42. 



— , judge, 43, 252. 

— , last days of, 365. 

— , last will of, 378, 492-496. 

— , liberality of, 57. 

— , liked to be called " Gen- 
eral," 107. 

— , loved by soldiers, 81. 

— , manners, 56, 141 -150. 

— , man of affairs, 33. 

— , marriage of, 161. 

— , merchant, 53. 

— , military career, 53, 66, 
118. 

— , miniature of, 145. 

— , misconceived in char- 
acter, 141. 



500 



INDEX 



Jackson, Andrew, mother of, 
29, 30, 39, 157, 159, 161. 

, Nashville, at, 41, 53, 61, 

7Z^ 263. 

, Natchez, at, 120, 121. 

, nephew of, 124. 

, note of thanks to, 42. 

, of and for the people, 



134- 

— , "Old Hickory," 100, 121. 
— , old waiter's view of, 55. 
— , opposition to nomination 

of, 62. 

— , orders issued by, 78. 
— , patriotism of, 57, 207, 215, 



219, 270. 
— , personal appearance of, 

55, 56, 133-139, 140. 
— , personal qualities, 51. 
— , place in history, 390-406. 
— , planter. 53. 
— ■, pledged personal prop- 



erty, 57. 

— , policy of, 162. 
— , politician and President, 

279-319. 
— , President, as, 56, 131, 246, 



279, 296, 319, 321, 336, 353- 

— , profession in life, 40. 

— , prudent, 210. 

— , pugnacity of, 207-219. 

— , purest of men, 157. 

— , quarrels of, 220-249. 

— , received in the church, 

— , recreations of, 58, 60, 63. 

— , reelection of, 353. 

— , refused to disband volun- 



teers, 120. 



Jackson, Andrew, relations 

with children, 200-206. 
, relations with mother, 

156-177. 
, relations with wife, 156- 



177- 



— , religion, 366-389. 

— , reminiscence of, by Mr.s. 

Johnston, 153. 
— , resigned from Senate, 

303. 
— , respect for women, 157, 



160. 
— , richest man in Tennessee, 



53- 

— , Salisbury, at, 59, 221. 
— , second campaign for 

presidency, 172, 297. 
— , second term as Presi- 



dent, 311. 
— , Senator, 40. 
— , soldier, 64-132. 
— , sound common sense, 40. 
— , sound judgment, 58. 
— , speeches of, 250-278. 
— , sportsman, 59. 
— , statesman, 2i7>- 
— , storekeeper, 56. 
— , studied law, 32, ^iZ- 
— , subjects of interest to, 



33. 



-, taught school, Z-- 

-, vote that elected, 65. 

-, vs. Louaillier, 44-48. 

-, wars fought in. 67. 

-, Webster's description of. 



147. 



withdrew from mercan- 



tile business, 57. 



501 



INDEX 



Jackson, Andrew, Jr., 378. 

, , Sr., 26, 27, 29, 30. 

, family, 27, 28, 34, 419. 

, Hugh, 26, 30, 34. 

, Rachel, 386. 

, Rachel Donelson Rob- 



ards, 161, 167, 169, 170, 171, 

173, 174, 177. 

— , Robert, 26, 30, 35, 2,-7. 
— , Waldo, 122. 



Jacksonian epoch, 252. 

" Jacksonian vulgarity," 56, 

151-153- 
Jefferson, Thomas, 50, 256, 

267, 304, 316. 

, dinner in honor of, 321. 

" Jeffersonian simplicity," 56. 
Jones, Bartlett, 315. 

, Paul, 274. 

Keane, Major-General, 95, 129. 

Kendall, Amos, 353. 

" Kitchen Cabinet," 304, 306, 

413. 
Lafayette, Marquis de, 171, 

217. 
Lambert, General, 95, 130. 
Lathen, Sarah, 424. 
Latour, Major, 118. 
Lee, Mrs. Elizabeth, 158, 332. 
Lewis, Major Wm. B., 175, 

193, 288, 290, 353, 379, 385. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 64, 267, 

279, 329, 339- 
Lincoyer, 200. 
Livingston, Cora, 203. 

, Edward, 105, 280, 331. 

, family, 142. 

, Louis, 127. 

Louaillier, Louis, 44-48. 



Lyon, Captain, 138. 
McCay, Judge, 136. 
McIlwain, James D., 418. 
McKay, Spruce, 33. 
McKemey, George, 25, 26, 422, 

428, 430, 433. 
McNairy, Judge, 63. 
Madison, Mrs., 182. 
Marcy, Governor, 315. 
Marshall, John, 282. 
Martineau, Miss Harriet, 248. 
Miller, Davis, 226. 

, General, 313. 

, Stephen D., 27. 

Mills, Senator, 292. 
Monroe, 50, 190, 273, 302. 
Montgomery, John, 415. 
Moore, General, 131. 

, Dr. John D., 243. 

Morgan, General, 68, 98. 

Mutiny, 76, 80. 

Nashville Inn, 55, 170, 234, 237, 

, return to, 263. 

, Union, 296. 

National Guard, 66. . 

, journal, 172. 

New Hampshire, 2'J2,- 

New Orleans, Battle of, 64, 

262. 
, campaign, 69, 72, 80, 86, 

89-99, loi, no. 
New York, 117, 266, 273. 

Evening Post, 326. 

Nichols, Colonel, 70. 
N lies' Register, 117, 217. 
Nolte, Vincent, 127, 169. 
Nullification, 279, 284, 320-339, 

409. 
, ordinance, 439-442. 



502 



INDEX 



Nullification proclamation, 443- 

467. 
"Old Hickory," 100, 121. 
O'Neal, Peggy, see Eaton. 

, Wm., 180. 

Overton, Colonel, 89, 165, 227. 
Pakenham, Sir Edward, 94, 

100, note, 107. 
Patterson, Daniel T., 89, 98. 
Pickens, Andrew, 35, 423. 
Planche, Major, 126. 
Poinsett, Joel R., 409. 
Polk, James K., 268. 

, Mrs. James, 210. 

, Robert, 103. 

Proctor, General, 109. 
Quarrels, 220-249. 
Quarter Sessions Court, 41. 
Randolph, John, 246, 251, 332. 
Reid, John, 411. 
P.EiLLY, Eugene, 417. 
Rennie, Colonel, 95. 
Republican party, 196, 326. 
Resolution . of censure, 196, 

245, 358, 359, 362. 
Revolution, the, 109, 218, 221. 
Roane, Governor, 65. 
RoBARDS, Lewis, 162. 
Robertson, Dr. Felix, 58. 
Robinson, Dr., 384. 
Rodgers, J. B., 112. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 118, 329. 
Rush, Richard, 115. 
Rutherford, Mrs. Anna, 136. 
Scott, General Winfield, 67, 

68, 309, 333. 
, Lieut. R. W., 112. 



Scott's Bible, 377. 
Secession movement, 320. 



Seminole War, 67, 191. 
Senate, U. S., 242, 244, 305, 357. 
Sevier, John, 223, 224. 
Shaw, Bernard, 55. 

, Dr., 367. 

Shreve, Captain, 129. 
Sims, J. Marion, 27. 
Slavery question, 338. 
Smart, Mrs. Susan, 135. 
Smith, General Daniel, 212. 

, Jacob, 226. 

, William, 27. 

South Carolina, 320, 329, 330, 

332, 338. 
Southern Confederacy, 338. 
Speeches, 250-278. 
Spoils system, 174, 279, 313. 
Stark, John, 273. 

, Molly, 273. 

State banks, 344, 346, 362. 
Steuben, Baron von, 68. 
Stokes, family, 170. 

, Judge John, 33. 

Summerfield, Mr., 172. 
Sumner, Charles, 63, 338, 380. 

, Prof. W. G., 99 note. 

Supreme Court defied by 

Georgia, 282. 
Swann, Thomas, 225. 
Tammany Hall, 326. 
Taney, Roger Brooke, 318, 

353, 354- 
Tariff bill, 334- 
, the, 282. 338. 



Tarleton, Colonel, 34. 

Tecum seh. 109. 
Texas, recognition of, 283. 
Thornton, Colonel, 94. 
Thornwell, James H., 27. 

S03 



INDEX 



Tohopeka, battle of, 83. 
TovvsoN, Colonel, 182, 184. 
Treasury, the, 363. 
Twelve-Mile Creek, 27, 421, 

424. 
Tyacic, William, Diary of, 380. 
United States Bank, 196, 198, 

245, 279, 284, 30s, 308, 318, 

340-365, 362. 

■ Telegraph, 326. 

Universal suffrage, 300. 

Van Buren, Martin, 187, 189, 

251, 284, 316, 319, 326, 364, 

378. . 
Van Pelt, Rev. Dr., 116, 178. 
ViDAL, 49. 
Waddell, Dr., 255. 
Walkup, General, 428, 432, 

433, 435- 
Walters, Dr., 384. 
War of 1812, 62, 64, 67, ^z, 

196. 



Washington, George, 64, 68, 

329, 393. 
Waxhaws, 25, 26, 157, 416, 423, 

426. 
Webster, Daniel, 218, 219, 244, 

251, 324, 335- 
Weems, Mason L., 420. 
Wells, Jonathan, 274. 
White House, 149, 150-152, 

158, 168, 188, 204, 249, 273. 
White, Joseph, 39. 
Wilkinson, General James, 

86, 258. 
Wilson, Colonel, 289. 
Wilson, Henry, 288. 
Winchester, General, 90. 
Wirt, William, 258. 
Witherspoon, Colonel James 

H., 420, 435. 
, Dr., 222. 



Wood, John, execution of, 79. 
Woodbury, Levi, 270. 



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